Hello Again
by Arisa Aihara
Summary: Some say that love transcends all boundaries. Hikari Yagami bitterly agrees to this. She has been trying to forget him, but some unknown force seems to want them to meet again: can she bravely say hello again to him after all these years?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Do Not Own! :)

**Summary: **Some say that love transcends all boundaries. Hikari Yagami bitterly agrees to this. She's been trying to forget him, but some unknown force seems to want them to meet again: can she bravely say hello again to him after all these years?

**A/N: **Prologue, yeay!

* * *

**Previously on Criminal Minds...**

Kidding. I've always wanted to say that. lol.

**Previously on "Coincidence or Destiny?"...**

"_Just ignore Takeru," said the class monitor. Upon seeing her puzzled face, Miharu nodded towards Takaishi. "He's Takeru Takaishi, the 'loner' of this class. Every class has one, right?"_

_"Two in my old class," Hikari said._

_"Now that must've been awful," said Miharu. "Well, this one never really talks much, but he will if people ask him things that he had to answer — or if someone picks up a fight with him."_

_

* * *

_

_"What d'you want?" he asked, in his unfriendly tone of voice. Hikari shrugged._

_"Nothing," she said._

_"Then why are you doing this?" the other asked._

_"Doing wha—?"_

_"Talking to me!" Takeru cut across her furiously. "Just — just — urgh — what d'you really want?"_

_"I told you, I want nothing," she replied. Takeru studied her for a while, wearing a deeply confused frown on his face. When he didn't say anything but kept looking at her, she grew uneasy — but still, she managed to stay calm. "I'm a new student, you know."_

_He snorted. "I know."_

_"Then can we be friends?"_

_This time, Takeru seemed to forget their rivalry. He looked at her, surprised, and did nothing for minutes. Hikari held out her hand._

_"Friends?" she asked, smiling. Takeru looked at her hand hesitantly, and then back at her. She tilted her head slightly to the side, still smiling. "Oh, c'mon. Izzit too hard to decide? I thought you have six brains?"_

* * *

_"…Ne, Hikari."_

_"Mmm?" she replied. There was a pause. Hey wait a sec. Did he just called me by my first name? She looked at him quickly, but his blue eyes were looking at his feet. Hesitantly, he spoke:_

_"…You know that day at the super market?"_

_"Yeah. What about it?" she asked, trying to sound calm._

_"…You said something about…being friends. Right?" he continued, still not meeting her eyes._

_"Mm-hm."_

_"D'you still mean it?" he finished, looking at her finally. Hikari sat up properly, and observed him — she was frowning a little but she was also smiling. Slowly, the usual pink glow appeared on Takeru's cheeks._

_"Yea, of course I mean it," she said. "You were the one who's too proud to accept my offer, anyway."_

_Takeru muttered something under his breath, and there was a pause for a while. "So…friends?" he asked, holding out his hand. There was something about him at the moment — he didn't look cold or unfriendly, he simply looked like a quiet, shy kid who needed friends but was too shy to make one._

_Hikari smiled wider, and took his hand. "Friends." He smiled back at her. Surprisingly, his hand was warm and wasn't as cold as he looked._

* * *

_"Well. Umm…there's this someone," Takeru began, "this someone is very important to me. I have to tell this someone two things, one that might make this someone happy and one that might make this someone very sad."_

_"Well," she said, "I know what you should do. First of, tell this someone that he or she is really important to you. And then tell him or her the news that might make him or her happy. But carefully say to this someone that there's something that might make him or her sad, and that you really don't mean it but it must happen. D'you think you can do all that?" she asked as they walked on slowly. He nodded silently. "That's good then — remember to tell this someone about those news in a v—" She stopped as he suddenly took her hands. "…Takeru?"_

_"Tell her that she's important, right?" he repeated quietly. "Hikari…maybe you never knew this before, but you're really important to me."_

_There was a pause, and then Hikari smiled uncomfortably. "Wait, Takeru…w-what—?"_

_"And I just want you to know that I…" He trailed off, looking at her brown eyes. She looked back at him, still very surprised. "…That I love you."_

* * *

_"…I'm getting engaged."_

_She let go of him quickly. "You're getting _what?"

_He closed his eyes, as if wishing he hadn't said anything._

_"No, Takeru — look at me," she said gently. "Is it true? You're not joking?"_

* * *

_"Umm. Hello," said Hikari uncertainly. To her surprise, the old lady suddenly stood, and walked towards her. Before she could said anything or do anything, the next thing she knew was that her right cheek was burning with a sharp pain._

_"Mama!" chorused both Natsuko and Yukiko Takaishi._

_"What the—!" she heard Yamato Ishida said._

_Mrs. Takaishi, Takeru's grandmother, had just slapped Hikari. It wasn't a weak slap, it was a very painful one — the old lady sure had energy even at her age… Hikari held her right cheek, and didn't quite feel her cheek at all. It was kind of numb. Hikari suddenly realised that everyone else was watching, too, and felt her face going red. What was this all about?_

_"So," said the old lady in her weird accent, "so, you're Hikari Yagami."_

_Hikari looked up and looked at her directly in the eyes._

_"You foolish girl," said the old lady. "This engagement was planned since their infancy!"_

* * *

"_I met Catherine."_

_"You did?" Hikari did not turn to meet his eyes. She merely nodded. "When?"_

_"Yesterday."_

_"And?"_

_"And I think we shouldn't be us anymore."_

_"Okay. I wanna know why," he said._

_"Because she needs you," Hikari said, still refusing to meet his eyes. "And she loves you," she added quietly._

_"Are you saying you don't need me and you don't love me, a__nd therefore we must break up?"_

_"No, just — just listen to me first!"_

_"I don't need to listen to you!" he said stubbornly, anger bubbling inside him. "Hikari, what does it matter? I **love **you and this whole engagement thing isn't going to stop us!"_

_"Sooner or later, it will!" she argued back. "__You should pity an ill girl who is madly in love with you!"_

_"I do pity her!" he said, trying to calm down and trying to inject some sense into the girl he loved. "It's horrible to have thalassaemia major, yes, but I — love — you!"_

_

* * *

_

_Catherine stood there and watched as Hikari Yagami chased Takeru around the garden, and she observed her fiancé's happy expression — the way he smiled, the way he dodged each blows from the other person, the way he laughed. She had never, ever seen Takeru like this. The one she knew was silent, unsmiling, cold and even statue-like. But this one — this one, just exactly where did this Takeru come from?_

_"I wouldn't mess with them if I were you," came a voice from behind and she spun around, surprised. There stood one of Takeru's friends, the one with spiky hair and those silly goggles. "I mean — hey, they're happy. Leave them alone and you'll be happy too."_

_"I am not giving up," she thought, "no way!"_

_

* * *

_

_"I was trying to get mum and dad back together! And without Hikari, it'd be way harder!" Before Takeru could ask more questions, Yamato said, "It was for your own sake, too." But this did not help at all, for Takeru became more confused and curious. Detecting the frown on Takeru's face, Yamato began to explain. "Okay. You know the whole engagement thingy?"_

_Takeru nodded slowly._

_"Okay. Dad and I disagreed one hundred percent, full stop."_

_"Oh, nice to know that — and you guys didn't even come to the rescue when I was getting engaged," he replied sarcastically._

_"I know, I know… Anyway, the day before I got here, dad expressed his concerns. You know how he is, sometimes he keeps so many things to himself…and sometimes he fails miserably to do so — he said he wished we're still a family, so that you don't have to go through the so-called Takaishi tradition…"_

_Takeru smiled stiffly. He knew his dad — when he was younger, he used to think that his dad would fall for his mother once more and they'd get married again, but as he grew, he'd stopped believing… But as he grew, he also saw evidences that his dad was still sort of 'attached' to his mother. So, secretly, he still believed._

_"…Which managed to make me think of something," Yamato was saying. He eyed Takeru carefully, and then said, "An Ishida like me doesn't have to go through the Takaishi tradition."_

_Blue eyes met blue eyes; they seemed to have reached an understanding._

_"So…get mum and dad together…"_

_"And rescue you from the Takaishi tradition," said Yamato, nodding. "Once you're an Ishida, the engagement is nothing! Look at me, I'm an Ishida, and I'm not engaged. So what excuse can Oba-chan give?"_

* * *

_"So, how's Catherine? Is she going to be all right?"_

_"Oh, I know my niece, she's a strong one — just like her mother," said Dr. Allen Leroy, patting Mrs. Leroy's shoulder affectionately._

_"So she's off to France for further treatment?" Natsuko asked, as if wanting conformation. Dr. Leroy nodded._

_Takeru quickly looked at the doctor, and then at the Leroys, before finally looking at his mother. No one had told him anything about Catherine going to France…!_

_"How long will it take? How long will the treatment take?" Mrs. Leroy asked. Dr. Leroy looked down at the floor, sighing._

_"For as long as it takes for her to get better."_

_"But she only has a _fever_, what d'you mean she's going to France?" Takeru asked loudly, his heart thumping fast._

_"Takeru," his mother said warningly. "Catherine needs this treatment…"_

_"Well, we should go in and check how she's doing," Dr. Leroy said, smiling. After bowing at each other, Mr and Mrs Leroy and Dr. Leroy went inside Catherine's hospital room._

_Takeru and his mother stood there for a while, and then Natsuko took Takeru by the hand and led the way to the elevator._

_"Takeru, dear," she said, "about Catherine going to France…"_

_He waited._

_"You grandmother thinks it's best if we go, too."_

_The elevator door swung open, and Takeru observed his mother closely. "You're joking." The woman said nothing as she pressed the 'ground floor' button. "Mum, you're joking, right?"_

__

_"It's decided. We're leaving tomorrow, the first flight."_

_

* * *

_

"Hiroaki Ishida speaking here, Yamato's not at home, he's more than glad to have a supportive fan such as yourself, his new single won't be out until the next few months, now leave a message or I'll hang up—"

In his mind, Hiroaki was making a note to himself: _"Rule number two in 'If You Wanna Stay in the Band' rules — DO NOT GIVE THE TELEPHONE NUMBER TO FANS!"_ But everything just sort of faded away when he heard a voice that he hadn't heard for quite a long time:

"Hiroaki, hold it for a moment!" said she before laughing. "I didn't know Yama shares so much about his band life with you before — do family members get discounts for the new album, then?"

Hiroaki dropped onto the vacant chair right next to the phone. "Natsuko?"

"Hey… I'm really kinda sorta confused right now and I mean it — _really, really kinda sorta _confused, and…I…_think _you might be able to help me."

__

"Well then! May I ask you, what is it that you're really kinda sorta confused about, Natsuko?" asked Hiroaki's voice over the phone. Natsuko couldn't help but laughed a bit. She paced around the corner of the cafeteria, choosing her words as she did so.

"Okay," she began, "we're moving to France — Takeru and I."

There was a pause. She had half expected Hiroaki to say that he was not affected by this news, and that he wouldn't even give a damn about it.

"…Right… All right, so now we know that Yamato has more reasons to dislike you — despite his true emotions…he really misses you nowadays, actually," he replied. "And, uh, you'll be missed. And I'll miss Takeru a lot — I mean, having Yamato going out almost every day and coming home late is enough to make me worried sick, imagine what it'll do to me when Takeru's living halfway a cross the globe from me?"

Here, he laughed bitterly. When she did not speak, he hesitantly asked:

"I do believe there's a reason behind this? And you're telling me about this, so…"

He didn't finish his sentence. He was asking _her _to do so. Natsuko sighed deeply, and walked towards a vacant table and sat there. "Oh, Hiroaki, I don't know… I'm just — just so…so… I dunno, I'm so…"

"It's your mother, isn't it?" he said, very gently, in that caring voice of his. "And the engagement?"

"Yeah — and I'm not sure about this, it's — it's like — like…"

Suddenly, her ex-husband laughed. "You're a grown woman, Natsuko, and Takeru's _our _son! I mean, yeah, Takeru is your mother's grandson and all, but — oh, come _on! _Mother and grandmother, who d'you _seriously _think has the right over that boy?"

He was not being sarcastic. He was simply amused, she could tell, by her childishness. He was simply there, again, to give her simple solutions to her simple-turned-difficult problems… He was…as always…being the simple man that had managed to win her heart…

"Natsuko, listen — I was okay with the engagement before because Takeru seemed okay about it too. But everyone can see that he clearly loves Hikari Yagami now, I'm sure you know that, right? And I dunno what's up with your mother…ever since Takeru met Hikari; she's been acting as if she's battling to win a war…or something…"

_

* * *

___

"You're leaving?"

Takeru nodded a tiny nod.

"To France?"

He didn't answer.

"You're moving to France? _France?"_

"Yeah. Tomorrow morning…"

"And — what about me?" Hikari asked, her eyes getting weirdly shiny.

He couldn't look at her anymore.

"That's it, isn't it?" she whispered, standing up and grabbing her coat and small hand bag. "I've asked you this question before, haven't I? _What am I supposed to do when your grandmother forced you to marry Catherine in front of the whole of Japan? __**What am I supposed to do, Takeru Takaishi?"**_

_**

* * *

**_

"This isn't the way to her hotel," he said quickly, looking around.

"I know," said Yamato.

"Well - turn back, we're going to the-"

"No we're not," his brother said shortly. "We're going home - you don't have a lot of time."

"Which is _exactly _why I need to see her now!" he half-shouted. Yamato said nothing as he took the junction that would lead them to the Takaishi's apartment.

"Just trust me on this one," Yamato said, rather mysteriously, as he dragged Takeru into the elevator. He violently shrugged his brother's hand off, but Yamato remained calm. Hands in the air to indicate surrender, he said, "Cool it, Teeks. You'll see her again - but we must hurry!"

"What the _hell?"_

The elevator doors slid open, and once again, Yamato half-dragged him out of it and towards the apartment. "Get in," Yamato said, shoving him through the door before closing and locking it quickly. The first person Takeru saw was his mother, who rose from her chair the moment her sons walked in. She looked extremely white.

"Are you happy now?" Takeru spat, glaring at her.

"Takeru-"

"And what's this? You're on Obachan's side, too?" he went on, turning around to glare at his brother.

"Listen," his mother said gently, touching his shoulders, "honey..."

_"Don't touch me!"_ Takeru shouted.

"Takeru Takaishi!" came a new voice - a man's voice. "Don't shout at your mother like that!"

It was his father.

Slowly, Takeru looked at Yamato, and then at his parents. Why was his father here? They were leaving for France the first thing tomorrow morning - but why were Yamato and his father here?

"What's going on?" he asked slowly, looking at his father.

"This is what families do," said Mr. Ishida, "we help each other out. Now, sit down and listen!"

* * *

**A/N: **This fanfiction is a sequel to "_Coincidence or Destiny?"_, a fanfic I wrote earlier. If you're new and you're interested, you can simply check my profile and read the first fanfiction~

To my old readers (if you're still here, that is!), welcome back! :3


	2. Chapter 2

1. Broken Crayons: How Everything Starts

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

He groaned, and did a violent flip to his side, facing the bedside table.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

His eyes still shut; he felt around and finally found the alarm clock. With unneeded force, he slammed the top of the alarm clock and it fell quiet almost immediately. He then pulled his thick blanket up his body — sure, he needed some adjustments…he just moved in, and the weather here was simply wet — it had been raining since yesterday evening.

After a few minutes, he found that he could no longer fall asleep. Sighing silently, he opened his blue eyes and stared at the wall right next to his bed. He touched it — it was cold. As cold as his life was…

Sighing again, he sat up slowly and did not do anything for a few minutes. The rain fell heavily and noisily on his roof. Almost against his will, he swung his long legs out of bed and started to walk across the room towards the bathroom. Thank _god_he'd installed the heater yesterday, or else he had to go and boil some water before being able to take a bath… Jeez, moving to a new place was _not_fun…

He had his bath with his eyes half closed, dressed up with his eyes half closed, combed his blonde hair with his eyes half closed, and even drunk his coffee with his eyes half closed. It was when the cold rain touched his skin a bit did he opened his eyes fully.

Cursing a bit, he took his umbrella, and went, as usual, to work at the small grocery shop nearby. He just hoped Mr. Hokama was in a good mood today, for he knew he was about twenty minutes late already…

Talking about Mr. Hokama, he suddenly remembered the early days when he had first came to the shop to look for a part time job. Sure, he was still studying, but he was also living alone all by himself, so he needed money.

But Mr. Hokama was not convinced when he first saw him — blue eyes, blonde hair and a total foreigner, who would want to hire someone like _that?_But once Mr. Hokama heard him speaking Japanese, he agreed to hire him. Mr. Hokama apologised for being rude, but he was right — how on earth could someone work in a small Japanese village if he didn't speak the language?

Smiling sleepily at the memory, he quickened his pace. Mr. Hokama would surely kill him if he were late.

—X—

"Yes. _Yes, sir —_and he's done it again this time. No sir, no one's hurt." Frowning slightly, she glanced at the boy sitting across the colourful room. The boy had this very sour expression on his face and he was very wet. Her brown eyes then moved to observe the crying girl sitting at the corner of the room — far away from the boy —and sighed in dismay. "Sir, you will have to come here _now,_you are his legal guardian, am I right?"

"_Yeah…yeah, I'll be right there,"_said the worried voice at the other end. _"But he_is _all right, isn't he?"_

"He is not hurt, but he is wet — but you should really be worried about the girl that he had suddenly attacked instead," she said.

"_Oh jeez — tell me the girl's all right — I'll be right there, say to him I'll be right there and__**don't move a muscle until I get there!"**_

And he hung up. She sighed again. Being a kindergarten teacher was _not_easy!

Aoi-chan was still crying. She'd contacted her sister already, and she, too said she'd be here — but the rain was pouring quite heavily, and she knew that that could slow Aoi-chan's sister down a bit.

She sat down next to the crying five-year-old. "Hey, Aoi-chan," she said, gently stroking her hair. The girl didn't stop crying. "It's okay…we can get you a new box of crayons soon… Just don't cry, we'll buy you a new one…"

"B-but that's…that's a p-present from my dad…!" the little girl moaned.

"So what? Ask your daddy to buy you a new one then, you cry baby!" the boy suddenly snapped. Aoi-chan cried again and she hugged her, whispering comforting words. She did _not_know what the boy's problem was — he wasn't a student here at the kindergarten, and she had not seen him before until a few days ago. Clearly he was new here.

Aoi-chan had accidentally run into that boy one day when she was with her older sister. That boy was so angry that he came back the next day to shout at her.

And today, he had purposefully thrown her box of crayons to the wet ground when he overheard Aoi-chan talking about it being a present from her father.

"I'll go make some hot chocolate, okay?" she said to Aoi-chan, and she nodded. She stood and walked towards the boy. "And you're coming with me."

Frowning sourly, the boy stood, and tailed her to the small kitchen at the back of the building.

—X—

He stopped in his tracks as he passed the kindergarten.

"…Aoi-chan?"

His blue eyes frowning, he crossed the small road, walked past the gates of the kindergarten and stopped in front of the window. He knocked the glass window twice. The little girl looked up.

"Aoi-chan, aren't you supposed to be in class?"

The girl nodded slowly. Her eyes were wet and she looked very upset.

"What happened?" he pressed on.

"…M-my crayons are b-broken… And I — I'm waiting f-for my sister…"

"Does you teacher know about this?"

She nodded. "She's in the k-kitchen…making some hot chocolate…" When she said the words 'hot chocolate', he could see that she'd cheer up a tiny bit. "You work with my sister at Mr. Hokama's grocery shop, right?"

"Yeah…"

"…C-could you tell her to hurry up, please?"

He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Of course I will. You hold on, okay? She'll be here soon."

—X—

The kindergarten teacher observed the boy as she prepared two mugs of hot chocolate. His expression did not soften up at all since he overheard Aoi-chan talking about her crayons. Right now, he was sitting on the chair, quietly frowning at the rain outside the window.

Whatever was wrong with him, she was determined to find out.

"Here you go," she said, handing a mug of hot chocolate to the boy. He stared at it for a while before taking it.

She didn't expect him to say it, but he did (although hesitantly), "…Thank you."

"So," she began, sitting down right next to him, "what's up?"

The boy frowned deeper — confused, maybe.

She smiled. "…Which one is it: you wanting a new box of crayons, or Aoi-chan being the annoying cry baby?"

Surprisingly, the boy blushed. Now, _this_ was something new…

"It's…not that…"

"Then, what is it about?" she asked gently. The boy was about to answer when suddenly a small thunder was heard. This made him jumped a bit.

"Well, you just drink up first and wait for your brother to come, okay?" she said, smiling. She heard him mumble something, but she could not hear it. "I'm going to give this hot chocolate to Aoi-chan…you can wait here if you want to."

"No, don't leave—!"

She turned around, surprised. The boy blushed even harder.

"…I…I mean—"

_Crack, boom!_

The boy jumped again, and quickly moved as far away as possible from the window, where he could clearly see the lighting.

Ah…the boy was afraid of the thunder and lightning…

Which reminded her of…

—X—

"Morning, everyone," he greeted as he reached the shop.

"Oh, thank _god_you're here!" said a worried voice. That worried person quickly moved from behind the counter. "Mr. Hokama won't let me leave until you come — today's supposed to be your shift too, anyway! Where have you been?"

"…I woke up late — and hey, Aoi-chan's waiting for you, she's—"

"I know, I know!" replied the other, her eyes filled with concern and worry. She quickly took her umbrella and small handbag. "Is she all right? Is she fine?"

He smiled at her. "She's fine, I've told her you'd be there soon."

She mouthed an, 'Oh, thank you' before pulling him into a hug.

"Thank you _so much —_I'll be right back!"

After ruffling his blonde hair playfully and kissing him on the cheek a bit, she left for the kindergarten, where her sister was waiting for her.

He sighed, touching the spot where she had kissed him.

Why did he ever put up with the wet weather and a hot headed boss again?

Oh yeah — _she's the reason._

—X—

"Hey, I'm going out for a sec!"

"Where to, honey?" asked a lady as she appeared from the kitchen.

"The kindergarten — he's done it again — I'll be right back!" he answered, pulling on his blue jacket that matched his eyes so much, before lifting the umbrella to shield his blonde hair from the rain.

* * *

**A/N:**Confusing first chapter? I know.

Who is the blonde-haired-blue-eyed person who worked at Mr. Hokama's grocery shop? Who is the kindergarten teacher? Who is Aoi-chan's sister? Who is the boy who broke the girl's crayons, and who is his guardian, who also happens to be blonde and has blue eyes?

Find out in the next chappie! :D


	3. Chapter 3

2. The Meeting

Hikari Yagami was worried – and pissed off. _And _the weather wasn't helping at all. She had to walk slowly because it was raining like cats and dogs – and she hated it. She wanted to get to the kindergarten _fast, _because that awful new boy had attacked her little sister again. The kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Kim, had telephoned her and said that Aoi-chan's new set of crayons were broken, thanks to that little git. Aoi-chan, being the pampered little girl she was, had, of course, cried her heart out when the boy destroyed the crayons given to her by their father during her birthday...

The Yagamis were very close to one another, and Aoi-chan was definitely close to her, since Hikari had practically raised the little girl up. Their mother had passed away shortly after Aoi Yagami was born, and that was when their father decided to move away to Kurokuro, this small, rainy village far away from Aoi-chan's birthplace, probably in an attempt to forget all the bad memories of losing his beloved wife.

She fastened her pace as she got closer to the road that would eventually lead her to the colourful kindergarten. "Hold on, Aoi-chan," she muttered to herself, "hold on! Onechan's on her way...!"

– X –

A loud thunder broke the silence between them, and the boy jumped slightly in his seat. "Are you afraid of the thunder?" she asked gently.

Still blushing, the boy nodded quickly, and edged closer to her when another thunder was heard. She chuckled a bit.

"It's not funny!" he protested.

"Oh, I'm sorry — of course it's not funny, how rude of me to laugh…come then, you go and sit near the reading corner, and I'll pull all the curtains, okay?"

The boy didn't say anything, but merely nodded before quickly making his way towards the reading corner. She saw Aoi-chan eyeing the boy carefully. She mouthed an, "It's okay", and the five-year-old relaxed a bit, taking a sip out of her mug before turning towards the window to see if her sister had arrived or not.

After closing the windows and pulling the curtains together, she made her way towards the boy again, who was peering curiously at a storybook.

"You know, you remind me of my daughters," Mrs. Kim began as she sat next to him. The boy lifted his eyebrows.

"How is that so?" he asked, still observing the titles of the books.

"Well, they're both afraid of the thunder too," she said, smiling. "They're twins — you know, they screamed so loud sometimes that I got angry."

The boy didn't say anything. He seemed to be really interested in the books.

"Go on, you can pick one and read," she said, changing the topic.

"Can I really?" he asked. She nodded, giving him the permission to do so. Smiling, the boy pulled out a book and read the back cover.

"It's a story of three siblings who lost their home and parents in a fire," she explained briefly.

"Oh…" He took his time reading the back cover of the book. She could sense that the boy would do fine so she stood up.

"I'll go check on Aoi-chan — you'll be fine, right?"

His cheeks turned pink a bit. "Yeah…fine…"

—X—

Positively out of breath now, he took a left turn and jogged along the small road towards the kindergarten. He did think of driving there, but the roads in the village were narrow and he found it rather tedious to drive. He could now see the colourful walls of the building, but he didn't want to imagine what on earth had happened to the girl. He hoped it was nothing serious… No, the kindergarten teacher would've informed him if it were a serious case, right?

A lady was walking from the opposite direction. She was obviously going shopping, with a basket in one hand - but she observed him for quite some time as she got closer — yes, he was new there, and yes, his appearance was a bit different…but stop with the staring already! It's rude!

He gave a quick, polite smile at the lady, and she seemed to have realised that what she was doing was rather rude, so she gave a friendly smile in return before continuing her journey to the shop.

Finally reaching the small road, he crossed it and walked straight towards the entrance of the kindergarten. The first person he saw was a little girl in a blue dress, sitting near the window and staring out of it.

He halted, breathing rather heavily. The girl looked at him as he paused for a few moments to catch his breath.

"Hey there, mister," she greeted, her face rather unfathomable. But he could clearly see that she had been crying. "You should get in or you'll get wet," she added. He smiled at her.

"Yeah…but I'm already a bit wet," he pointed out. The girl smiled a bit. He returned her smile, but then caught a glimpse of a little boy reading a book at the opposite end of the room. Quickly, he removed his shoes, left his umbrella outside and entered. He made his way quickly towards the boy.

"Have you _any idea _how worried I was?" he called out, and the boy looked up at him with his blue eyes.

—X—

"Good morning and welcome, Mrs. Takanori!" he greeted as one of Mr. Hokama's usual customers entered through the glass door, twirling her umbrella to shake off the rainwater.

"Oh, good morning dear — ooh, it's just so cold today…"

He was about to comment on the weather, too, when she suddenly she cut across him. Mrs. Takanori _was_a talkative person, mind you.

"I saw this young man on my way here, he looks a bit like you — you know, yellow hair and blue eyes — is he a relative of yours, dear?"

He paused to think for a moment. "Uh…_no,_ I don't think so…"

"Oh. Oh, really? Maybe he's your cousin or something, who wants to give you a surprise visit," Mrs. Takanori said, walking towards a shelf full of canned mushrooms.

"Nah, I don't think so," he insisted. "I mean, everyone's so busy lately, they only give me phone calls."

"Hmm," said Mrs. Takanori, "well, if you say so. Now, where can I get some soy sauce, ya?"

He couldn't help grinning at the way Mrs. Takanori changed the subject all of the sudden. He waited for the old lady to look for the correct things, and meanwhile, he couldn't help thinking about _her._ Had she arrived yet? How was Aoi-chan? Was everything okay?

Anxiety soon took over him, and after making sure Mr. Hokama was engaged with something else, he took out his cell phone, and dialled a certain number. He waited. After the third dial, she picked up.

_"Yeah, hello?"_ came Hikari's voice from the other end.

"Hey," he said, sitting up straighter. "You there yet?"

_"No, not yet,"_ she said, a bit louder, in order to fight the sound of the falling rain. _"I'm almost there — why did you call me? I had to take out my cell phone from my bag and — ooohh!"_

He frowned. "Hello?"

_"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE DRIVING! …Urgh, a car just zoomed by — oh, look at that —_he lives up the hill in the bungalow_, no wonder!"_ she said, sounding pissed off. He couldn't help laughing._"It's NOT funny!"_

He had learnt when he first came here that those who live up the Spiralling Hill were rich people. That area was filled with bungalows and huge houses. Obviously whoever was driving the car had splashed some water towards her, and had not stopped to apologise.

"Are you okay?" he asked in between laughter. "Are you wet?"

_"…No, I'm fine,"_ she snapped, still sounding angry — and also cute._"That's it, are you done asking whether I'm there yet or not?"_

"Yep, done asking," he said, grinning.

_"Good. I'm crossing the road now, don't distract me!"_

"Okay, okay!" he said. "Bye — be careful, will you? And say hello to Aoi-chan for me!"

_"Sure, I will. Bye!"_

And she hung up.

"…Bye," he said, and added quietly, "love ya… Urgh, you're _such a coward."_ He sighed, kept his phone away, and ruffled up his hair. "You should've said that when she's still on the phone, you idiot!" he hissed alone, hitting his head over and over again.

"Hmm, love issues, ya?"

Mrs. Takanori was standing in front of the counter, with her basket full of groceries. He smiled sheepishly at her.

And yes, she was the Goddess of All Gossips here at this small village!

—X—

"Have you _any idea _how worried I was?" said an unknown man's voice.

"Niisan!" She heard the boy replied.

"Go on with the class, I think one of the guardians are here," she said to Miss Shiro, one of the five kindergarten teachers. Mrs. Kim then exited the classroom towards the colourful entrance hall, and immediately saw a scene:

A blonde young man wearing blue jacket and a pair of black pants was crouching in front of the boy — his back facing her. He was holding the boy's shoulders and seemed to be giving him a sort of lecture, but concern could be heard in his voice as he spoke. Aoi-chan sat where she was, watching the scene.

"You were supposed to be at school — look, now you're wet — what if you catch a cold?" the young man was saying. He then sighed. "You OK?"

She saw the little boy nod. He had his head hung, as if humiliated by what he had done to Aoi-chan. Mrs. Kim cleared her throat, earning the young man's attention almost at once.

Her brown eyes met a pair of worried, but quite pretty, blue, blue eyes.

—X—

Hikari looked to her right and then to her left before quickly crossing the small road towards the kindergarten. She could see the figure of her little sister sitting near the window, but she wasn't looking out of it — instead, she was watching something inside. Breathing heavily (for she had jogged all the way towards the kindergarten), she slowed her paces down and finally came to a halt.

"Ooh…oh…oh dear…phew!" she panted, catching her breath. Aoi-chan turned to look at the sound of her voice.

"Onechan!"

She grinned at her sister, who leaped off the chair and ran towards her. She hugged her. "Aoi-chan…! Are you okay? You all right?" she asked, stroking her hair gently. The five-year-old nodded.

"But most of my crayons are broken and wet," she said once they let go. She could see that Aoi-chan was in deep pain: that box of crayon was from their father, and she had treasured it throughout the year.

"Oh, it's okay, honey," she said, smiling gently at her. "We can buy a new one, okay?"

Reluctantly, Aoi-chan nodded. "But…I loved the one dad gave me…"

"I know," she said sympathetically. "I know, Aoi-chan…but what else can we do? Come on, let's see your teacher — and I'll scold that naughty boy who did this to you if you want me to!"

Aoi-chan giggled as she made an angry face. "Why didn't dad come here? My teacher said you're coming instead," Aoi-chan asked (as she removed her shoes and entered the kindergarten).

"Well, your teacher _did_contact our home number, but dad was asleep," she replied. "And Taichi-niichan is out somewhere — he said something about visiting an old friend… So here I am."

"Ah, good," said a woman's voice. Looking up, she saw Aoi-chan's teacher, Mrs. Kim. "It looks like both guardians are here. Through here, if you please."

The teacher went on first towards the office. She immediately saw the boy who had broken Aoi-chan's crayons, and also his guardian — a young man…with blonde hair… That young man had his back facing her, but she could see the boy clearly: he had brown hair, fair skin, and a pair of somehow familiar blue eyes…

Suddenly a thunder was heard — a loud one — and the boy jumped as if he had received an electric shock before squeezing his eyes shut and pressing both his hands against his ears.

Her heart suddenly stopped (figuratively, mind you) — seeing that scene suddenly triggered an old memory…it came swimming back into her head…

_A rather empty living room...an apartment overlooking the gardens... A rainy day... Articles on Japan's heroes of the past were scattered on the coffee table... An unsmiling teenage boy watching the news..._

_Then, a loud thunder visited—_

_CRACK! BOOM!_

_Nothing else could be heard after that, for several thunders followed after, but then she heard it — a voice. Somewhere in the house._

_A child's voice._

"_Keru-niichan! Hiroki afraid…!"_

_The cold teenage boy introduced her to his little cousin... And then..._

_He smiled..._

Hikari blinked several times as the image of the person whom she had been trying to forget invaded her mind. Everything happened too fast...

The guardian of the boy placed an arm around the small, scared boy. He was tall, he had bright skin (just like the boy), and he had a pair of blue eyes.

"It's okay, Hiroki…" he said gently, pulling the little boy closer to him.

Time stopped. The ground shifted. Everything around her went black. She only saw that tall person — that person who had pretty much ruined her life, who had broken her heart oh so many times, who had made her cry on her bed numerous times at night—

"Mr. Ishida? Hikari-chan?" called the teacher from the office. She peered out from the door of the office, her brown eyes as gentle as ever. The plump woman in her thirties opened the door of the office wider and smiled. "Come on inside, all of you."

Upon hearing her name, Mr. Ishida whirled about and stared at her. His blue eyes widened, and a frown was visible on his face. Clearly he had not expected this meeting – he was as surprised as she was.

At last, after five years of separation, Hikari and Takeru were once more in the same room.

* * *

**A/N:**Err, more? I was going to write more, you know. But. Oh well. AHH! :D

If you've read _Coincidence or Destiny, _then you'd probably be able to guess that the flashback is from chapter 7 where Hikari was stuck with Takeru in his apartment, having to do their little history project together. :)


	4. Chapter 4

3. Enter Willis, The Third Person

Natsuko Ishida stopped unpacking when she heard a _'honk-honk'_noise outside. Putting the box of cutleries aside, she jogged out of the kitchen, along the hallway, across the living room and through the main entrance to get to the door— and when she did; she waved happily to the person in the car outside the gates of her new home. Quickly, she took the remote control of the gates and with a single press of a button, the gates swung open, allowing the silver car to drive in.

After parking the car, a tall and slender blonde young man got out of the car.

"Yama!" she greeted happily and her eldest son rolled his eyes ("Don't call me that anymore, it's embarrassing!"). She gave him a hug and he returned it. "Come on in, it's so cold outside…come in, come…"

Natsuko led the way to the kitchen, but Yamato lingered around to have a look at the kind of empty living room.

"We haven't finished unpacking, so it's not quite my dream house yet," she joked from the hallway.

"Well, that's why I'm here, isn't it?" her son called back somewhere from the living room.

"You're _really_gonna help us unpack?" she asked, taking out two mugs from one of the boxes in the kitchen. Yamato soon entered the kitchen, still looking here and there.

"Of course I'm gonna help you _unpack,"_Yamato said. "What, you don't think I have time, do you?"

"Exactly — I heard from Teeks that you're making a tour or something of the sort," she replied, gesturing him to sit down at the counter. "I heard it's gonna be big?"

"It's a _charity programme,_not a tour," Yamato corrected her, rolling his eyes once more. "It's not like we're touring the whole of Japan or 're just gonna sing in small concerts here and there…s'nothing big. He never gets things correct nowadays, does he, that Takeru?"

Natsuko laughed while pouring some tea into the two mugs. "Well, yeah — he's always that day dreamer…"

"…He's that day dreamer _only_ after you move out of Odaiba, remember? He was a sharp person who loved to observe and ignore things back when…" Yamato trailed off before taking a sip out of his tea. Perhaps he had sensed that gloomy atmosphere coming from his mother, Yamato quickly asked, "Where's dad? And where _is_Takeru, anyway? I don't see him anywhere near the TV."

"Oh? Oh — your dad's got some urgent meeting or something (see, he left me to unpack alone!) and as for Takeru, he's down at the village – your little cousin's done it again."

"Hiroki-kun?" he asked, frowning. "I heard he scared a kindergarten kid — he's doing it _again?"_

Natsuko nodded. "Mm-hmm. Something about broken crayons, I heard. Just — let Takeru handle this one," she said when Yamato rose up from his chair. "Those two are really close to each other…so just…leave it to him, okay?"

Yamato sat back down. "Yeah…okay…"

Natsuko sighed. "Really, Hiroki-kun needs time to adjust… Ever since that plane crash…ever since his mother got into a coma for years…he's just…" She trailed off, shaking her head in dismay.

"Yeah…it's even harder for him now that aunt Yukiko's gone," Yamato agreed. "Well! I'll cheer him up. Maybe I'll bring him along to those charity concerts and introduce him to my fans! He'll be the cutest mascot ever…"

"Yamato! He has _school_and he's not going to be your mascot!"

"Hehe… Only joking, mum."

—X—

Mrs. Kim and the children were obviously unaware of the tension in the office. The elder woman was lecturing _him _about Hiroki-kun – his cousin – but for some reason, Hikari was sure that he wasn't listening to the kindergarten teacher so much. Hikari tried her best to avoid his eyes, but it was somewhat difficult, for he was sitting across her at the table...

Each heartbeat was like a stab to the heart – would Mrs. Kim just _get on with it? _What was she still babbling about? _Okay...calm down, Hikari, calm down. He's just another random person in the village—_

But the village was small...everyone knew everyone else and it's rather impossible _not _to know someone... So what was he doing here? With an eight-year-old cousin?

...Had he moved in...?

_Oh, dear Lord, please have mercy!_

"…children who are _not_from this school, therefore I will need to ask you to please, watch over Hiroki-kun."

Mrs. Kim's strict voice managed to snap Hikari out of her thoughts, and then she heard him reply,

"I understand. He is to be blamed."

For a moment there, she could recognise the long-forgotten but familiar coldness in his voice. She stole a quick glance and saw him giving Hiroki-kun a glare. The boy hung his head, only to flinch again when another thunder was heard.

"Very well then, I think everything's settled now," Mrs. Kim said, smiling. "Aoi-chan? Do you wish to go home?"

Her five-year-old sister quickly shook her head. "I want to learn!"

"That's great, Aoi-chan," said Hikari, and her sister grinned. "I'm so proud of you!"

"You can borrow some crayons from your friends and from our art box," said a smiling Mrs. Kim, who was leading the way out of the office.

The girl nodded enthusiastically and was about to head out of the office – and Hikari followed suit, picking up her things and hastily dashing for the door – but Takeru quickly stood up and called out, "Aoi-chan, please hold on a moment."

Hikari was whispering, "Keep walking, come on!" but Aoi-chan stopped in her tracks and turned around. It was probably the hint of kindness in the young man's voice that made her stop. Almost against her will, Hikari turned around as well, but kept her gaze on Hiroki-kun.

They were now standing face to face, hands on the shoulders of the young ones in front of them.

"I believe Hiroki has something to say to you," Takeru said, giving the boy a slight push so that he stood closer to Aoi-chan.

"…I… I'm…sorry," Hiroki-kun mumbled. Aoi-chan looked both shy and scared as Hiroki-kun extended an arm and waited for her to shake it. While her little sister made the decision (whether to accept or decline the apology), Hikari sneaked a glance at Takeru: she was lucky, for he seemed to be avoiding her eyes, too. That was when she really had a good look at him.

She was sure that her heart had skipped a beat then, but later, she would deny it and said that she had felt nothing – Takeru Takaishi (Ishida? She wasn't sure...was he under some disguise and changed his name?) had undoubtedly grown into a fine young man: his features were still as she remembered them – blue eyes, fair complexion – but he definitely _wasn't _that troubled teenage boy she used to know. He was slowly growing into a man...

The very thought was enough to make her flush red.

Hikari only snapped out of her thoughts when Aoi-chan began to step forward. She quickly let go of her sister's shoulders and watched as she hesitantly shook Hiroki-kun's hand.

"It's okay," said Aoi-chan shyly, making the elder Yagami smile. Hiroki-kun looked even more embarrassed and was obviously at a loss of words.

"Now bow, be polite," Hikari said, and then she and Aoi-chan bowed at the other two. When Takeru began to bow back, Hikari took the opportunity to turn around and exit the office. She led Aoi-chan to her class (which was, thankfully, all the way down the hall) while Takeru and Hiroki-kun made their way to the front door of the kindergarten.

She took deep, steadying breaths as she watched Aoi-chan settled down in her class. Had she been holding her breath all the time in that office? She was pretty positive that she had.

"Hikari-chan?" came Miss Shiro's voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she said quickly, giving the teacher a smile.

"You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

_...Or someone you've been trying to forget for the past five years!_

"No, I'm okay," she insisted, smiling still. This time, Miss Shiro smiled back, probably deciding it's best to drop the topic.

"So, who was that boy?" the teacher asked, changing the subject.

"Uh – some boy, Hiroki-kun..."

Miss Shiro frowned. "Hiroki-kun? I've never seen or heard of him... The Matsudas have a son called Hiroki, but I'm sure he's thirteen or fourteen this year!"

"Well – yeah – I dunno who they are..."

As if on cue, Mrs. Kim came towards them (she had seen the other two to the door) and said, "That was Takeru Ishida and his little cousin, Hiroki Takaishi. Apparently they've just moved in last Thursday up at the Spiralling Hill."

"Ah, I see...how old is the boy?"

"I'm not sure – eight or seven, I bet."

"Such a wild boy! But clearly he respects his cousin..."

"...Yes, fell silent almost immediately when Ishida-san scolded him..."

The two teachers kept conversing this way while Hikari let her own thoughts flow. So...they'd moved in? They had _really _moved in? The idea of having to meet him often in the village afterwards seemed surreal... Was there a way to avoid them? Avoid _him?_ It was most unlikely...

"Hikari-chan? Hikari-chan!"

"Huh – wha—?"

Mrs. Kim placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, yea I'm all right," she said, shaking herself mentally. "I was just thinking – well, I hope Hiroki-kun will behave...from...now on..."

The two teachers agreed to this, and continued to talk some more on the matter. Hikari slowly excused herself and made her way to the front door of the kindergarten. From where she stood, she could see Takeru and Hiroki-kun's figures across the street. They were walking slowly in the rain with a blue umbrella above their heads, held up by Takeru's long arm...

Sighing, Hikari began to put her shoes on. It was time to return to the grocery shop.

—X—

Takeru slowly turned to look at his cousin as they walked up the Spiralling Hill. The eight-year-old refused to look at him.

"Hiroki-kun…"

"_Don't_say it, I know already…" he muttered, turning the other way, completely hiding his face from him.

"Good then," he said in a strict voice, "so tonight, there will be no TV for you and your bedtime is an hour early."

"But—!"

"Well, you should've thought twice before doing what you did today," he said. Then, with softer voice that indicated he was worried and disappointed, he said, "You missed your first day at your new school — what were you _thinking?"_

Hiroki didn't reply, but simply hung his head instead. Takeru knew that his cousin was going through a very hard time...losing your parents isn't something easy to deal with - and what's more, he was barely ten years old...

They walked together in silence for a few moments. Takeru observed Hiroki with sad eyes before ruffling up his hair and pulling him into a quick hug.

"You silly," he said quietly. Hiroki looked confused; he blushed deeply but didn't say anything. "You know," he began airily, "back when you were two, you called me 'Keru-niichan'. I tried so many times to teach you how to say my name properly but…"

Hiroki-kun frowned at him. "Uh...okay. And you're telling me this _now _because...?"

"…Nah, forget it," he said, waving his hand. Upon seeing Hiroki's unconvinced face (perhaps the eight-year-old was worried about his sanity), he said, "C'mon, let's go home…I think Yamato's here already — you know, to help us unpack."

With that, they kept on walking all the way up the Spiralling Hill to their new home. But his day had just brightened up — for he had found her.

Or more like, he had coincidentally run into her.

Someone up _there_must have a bone to pick with them or something.

"Niisan...you're grinning _alone_...you sure you're OK...?"

—X—

"Hey, you're back," Willis greeted in his weird accent as Hikari entered the grocery shop. When she did not reply, the American young man became slightly worried. "Is everything okay? How's Aoi-chan? Is she all right?"

"…Yea, fine…fabulous…"

She made her way towards the back of the counter and sat next to Willis, thinking about everything that had just happened.

"Uh — are you okay?" Willis asked uncertainly after a few seconds. She nodded quickly. "Don't lie to me, Hikari," he said warningly. "You know that I—"

"D'you believe in coincidence?"

This one was a really random question, and Willis just didn't see it coming. "Uhh — _what?"_

"Coincidence," she repeated once more. "You know — if things happen by accident and stuff."

"I _know_what 'coincidence' means but — but what the heck? What's this all about?"

"Okay…d'you remember why I avoided you the first time you came here?" Hikari started slowly, looking at her American friend, who looked back.

"You mean…this has something to do with that guy — what's his name again — Takato? Takari? Take-something?" Hikari nodded quickly. Willis frowned deeper. "He's not here, is he?"

"He _is!"_ Hikari said miserably, sighing and turning away. "I've _told_you — it's like, wherever I go, he'll be there sooner or later — he'll find me…!"

Hikari sat there, frowning and looking troubled. Willis didn't like seeing her like this: so down, so depressed… Usually she could remain grinning till the end of the day, even if it was raining heavily. Well, back when he'd first met Hikari, she was not as cheerful as she was today…mainly because she had so many old memories — _painful_memories — about a certain someone who'd given her a hard time…

However, Willis could say proudly to anyone who asked, that _he_was the one who cheered Hikari up a great deal and became who she was now. She smiled more often nowadays and didn't mourn for everything like she used to when he had first met her…

He couldn't find other words to describe how they met other than 'strange'. The way they met was kinda strange, and at first, he didn't think he'd be able to befriend this Hikari Yagami, who had given him the cold shoulder during the early days when he'd first moved in. The small town of Kurokuro was full of very friendly people (on his first week there, the nearest neighbours baked him cakes — and within three days, the whole village had learnt his name and his background), and Hikari was friendly too — she was friendly to everyone except _him._

He wondered a lot back then: why Hikari was treating him that way? She would try to avoid him whenever she saw him, and would not speak a word to him at all. Did she not like him because he was an American? She didn't look like a racist…not to him, anyway, and he was sure that everyone else would think the same if they were to see Hikari's beautiful smile.

In the end, Willis' curiosity got too high and he finally confronted her about it. He got Hikari cornered one day while they were sorting out things in Mr. Hokama's storeroom. He got straight to the point and asked her why she was treating him like that, and she had replied (with her face pink):

"I am not comfortable talking to someone who I barely know. Please mind your own business."

And then he had cheekily replied, "Oh, I'm not so bad once you get to know me…" Honestly, Willis did not know what it was — his looks, his words, or the fact that she was cornered that day — but whatever it _was,_it managed to get a confession out of Hikari.

"You look like someone" was the first thing she mumbled after a pause. From there, he slowly — _slowly —_learnt about a certain someone who she had fallen in love with oh-so-much. And from there, she started to treat him the way she treated everyone — and check this out: he actually was her best friend now. Sure, it would seem weird to see him gossiping with Hikari's other friends (or sometimes he just stood there listening), but it was all worth it.

She was a very charming person.

"Okay, I am _so_not freaking out," Hikari concluded as she got to her feet. "I'll sort out the small boxes. Yeah. Life goes on…! Yosh!"

She then headed for the storeroom with the famous Superman Flying Pose.

And yup, she was an optimist. Even the weather can't defeat her.

And as for him, he had always believed that he had an iron will. The weather can't defeat him, too, and neither could this Takeru Takaishi, the person whom he saw as a threat to his brilliant plan of confessing to Hikari.

Willis remembered saying that, if Hikari wanted to reminisce about Takeru whenever she saw or looked at _him,_it's okay — go ahead. Imagine him as Takeru, or whatever. He was fine with it as long as she was fine with it, too.

Well, now he deeply regretted that action.

"I look like someone, huh…?" he said quietly after a while, before turning his attention to their new customer.

* * *

**A/N:** w00t! I can drive now! :D BOOYAH! XD I used to think that driving is difficult, and I had no confidence whatsoever about learning how to drive – but I can drive now! But I still have to sit for the test... Yosh! :D

(And the first thing I do when I get back from driving lessons is to head into the kitchen, squeeze a generous amount of dishwashing liquid onto my hands and scrub away! Imagine how many students have used that car before me! Sweaty hands have touched that steering wheel before I did! Must clean the hands!)

How was the chapter? Plenty to read, right? XD So it's okay if I don't update soon, right? XDD


	5. Chapter 5

4. I Won't Sit Around; I Can't Let Him Win Now…

"I'm home..."

"Oh, you're back!" Taichi greeted from the living room where he and Aoi-chan were watching the television. Taichi was peeling and slicing apples and Aoi-chan was eating them. "Mou, Aoi-chan! By the time I'm done, I won't be able to taste any if you keep eating them!"

Aoi-chan giggled and the two argued some more before the little girl gave up and fed her brother a slice of apple lovingly. Hikari smiled and joined them.

"Here, one for onechan!" Aoi-chan said, feeding Hikari a slice of apple. She said thanks and began to chew thoughtfully.

"So," Taichi began, "Aoi-chan's told me what happened at the kindergarten."

"Mmm..."

"I heard the guy's name is Ishida?"

Hikari glanced at Taichi before looking away. "Umm, yeah." Did her brother find out that Takeru was in town? Hikari wasn't sure what would happen if Taichi knew – he had always been that defensive big brother who cared for his sisters.

"So it's really them? Dad's told me yesterday that the neighbours are planning a welcoming party for them," Taichi went on before putting a large slice of apple into his mouth. "I 'eard they're nice 'eople!"

"How can you call them nice if the little boy attacked our sister?" Hikari said rather crossly, taking over the peeling-the-apples task. Taichi waved a hand dismissively.

"He's just a kid," he said. "I mean, come on – _I _stole an Easter egg from our neighbour back when I was six – d'you remember that, Hika? It was so funny! Everyone began to blame that one kid instead—"

"—And then dad scolded you when he found out," Hikari cut in, grinning at the memory.

"Well, yeah. I deserved that, heh," she said sheepishly. "Anyway! I was saying, the Ishidas seem nice, or so Mr. Matsuda said. Besides, Aoi-chan's forgiven that Hiroki boy, right? Right, Aoi?"

"Mm-hm!" said the girl cheerfully, her eyes glued to the TV as a a trio singing group, JYJ, appeared on stage.

"So...so when exactly is this welcoming party?" Hikari asked wearily.

"Dunno. I think dad said something about combining it with the annual Sports Day."

_Oh great, _thought Hikari. The community in Kurokuro village always held a Sports Day each year, just to strengthen their bond and stuff. If they really did combine the welcoming party with the annual Sports Day, then it would be almost impossible for her to avoid Takeru. She had volunteered to help with the food and drinks, and since people would _definitely _want food and drinks on that day, they would most certainly visit the tent and meet her.

"I think it's a good idea," Taichi said absent-mindedly as he and Aoi-chan watched JYJ performed their song, "I mean, it'll be a great way to get to know each other through sports!"

"Yeah, of course you'd say that. You're obsessed with soccer!"

"You said that as if it's a bad thing!"

"Well, yeah, it's kinda bad when _I _have to wash your muddy socks."

"Sorry," said Taichi, grinning. "Anyway – why is it that I feel like you don't like the Ishidas? Did Hiroki-kun's cousin say something bad to you?"

"No, he didn't," Aoi-chan suddenly piped in, "he was really kind! Wasn't he, onechan?"

"Err – yeah, he was polite. It's just that – well, I'm still pissed off. Those crayons were good crayons, okay?" she said furiously, slicing the apples rather violently. She finished up quickly before Taichi could say anything, and stood up. "I'll be in my room," she mumbled before stalking off.

"What's with her?" Taichi asked Aoi-chan, who simply shrugged.

—X—

Yamato Ishida lazily made his way upstairs towards his room (well, at first it was a guest room, but after making a big fuss out of it ("How come _I_don't get a room? Because I have my own house elsewhere? **Not fair!"**), that room became his). His stomach was full and he was feeling very sleepy at the moment — his mother was always a good cook, but never really cooked often. He was about to go straight into his room and sleep, but when he passed his brother's bedroom, his steady march was turned into slow, soundless steps.

He crept closer towards the opened door, and peered inside. He saw Takeru on the bed, lying on his stomach and looking at something in his hands.

"Reminiscing the old times, are we?" Yamato said, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe. His brother quickly turned to look, and hid the item – a photograph – under his pillow.

"I'd love it if you knock my door before startling me," his little brother mumbled, getting into a sitting position.

"Then it wouldn't be called 'startling' someone, would it?" he replied, entering the room and sitting down next to Takeru. "What's that?" he simply asked (more like demanded), pointing at the pillow.

Takeru calmly shoved the photo farther under the pillow. "Nothing."

"Oh, come on, what _is it?"_ he insisted, leaning across Takeru to reach the pillow. The younger Ishida quickly pulled him by the sweater, but Yamato was quick: he triumphantly held up the photo as he jumped away from the bed. "Oh? I've never seen this before!" It was a photo of a bunch of teenagers posing in front of some grand garden or something, and quickly, Yamato spotted the fifteen-year-old Takeru, standing next to a girl with brown hair.

"Hey, give it back!"

Yamato held it up above his head, just to taunt his little brother a bit, but one of the annoying things about Takeru was the fact that he was a basketball player. He jumped, grabbed the photo, and quickly went to his study table to keep it away.

"How long are you staying here?" Takeru asked after he had safely tucked the photo into one of his books. Yamato grinned as he lay down on his brother's bed, both hands behind his head as a pillow.

"Can't wait for me to leave, huh?"

"Yea, kind of," Takeru replied with a grin of his own. "Nah, I'm just asking."

"I might be able to stay for the welcoming party – mum wants me to be there," he said. Ever since their parents remarried, his mother had always wanted to do things together. "But I'll leave soon after that. You know, to prepare for the small concerts." After a while, something came to his mind. "Oh yea!" Searching his pockets, Yamato took out four tickets. "Here, these are special behind-the-stage tickets, you know, to go and watch our rehearsals… I got four — for you, mum, dad and Hiroki-kun — but mum and dad don't wanna come, so I hope you and Hiroki-kun will go."

He handed the tickets to Takeru, who read it for a while. "But what am I supposed to do with the other two?" he asked, looking up.

"As for that, maybe you can give it to your new friends or something — girls, preferably," Yamato replied with a wink. Takeru groaned.

"We just moved in, I don't have any new friends yet…"

"Aww, nonsense…there'll be a 'Takeru Ishida Fan Club' pretty soon, I'm sure," Yamato said. His little brother turned pink and looked away. Perhaps he had someone in his mind? He observed Takeru for a while before casually asking, "So...what happened at the kindergarten today?"

Takeru ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Uh. Hiroki-kun – I dunno...he won't tell me why he did what he did."

"And the little girl?"

"She was upset, but she forgave Hiroki-kun in the end," said Takeru, smiling a little.

"Hmm," was all Yamato said. So – he didn't want to tell him the whole story, huh? "I heard the girl's name is Aoi Yagami."

And now, watch the magic do its work. Takeru reddened almost at once, and avoided his brother's eyes.

"Couldn't be a coincidence, could it?" Yamato went on. "Hiroki-kun told me the kindergarten teacher called the older Yagami 'Hikari-chan'."

Takeru was silent for a while, and Yamato decided that it was best to let him initiate the conversation from now on. His little brother had been searching for Hikari Yagami for _years, _but for the past two years, Yamato had noticed this I-think-I'm-gonna-give-up attitude coming from Takeru. It was as if he had gotten used to the idea that he would never be able to find Hikari Yagami again. But Yamato knew that his little brother still couldn't forget her: he had actually rejected every single girl that came confessing their feelings to him for _five freakin' years._

"She's grown out her hair," said Takeru, breaking the silence. He was smiling. "It's pretty."

"So it's really her?"

"Mm-hm."

"...Damn."

"I know, right?" Takeru said with a small laugh. He then rubbed his forehead, looking a little bit agitated.

"Well? How did she take it? How did _you _take it? You must've been so surprised, your face turned blue."

"She was quick to avoid me, I'll tell you that."

"That's good – means she still feels something for you."

"Yeah, like what? Hatred?" Takeru said, rolling his eyes. "I...I just – I dunno, niisan. It _has _been five years, after all..."

Yamato didn't say anything for a moment, but then, he frowned and got up from his lying position. "Did you stalk her before we moved in or anything?" he asked in a serious voice.

"N-no!"

"Then it's _really _a coincidence?"

"I...I guess so..."

"Wow," said Yamato, lying down once more. "Well! I think you guys will have plenty of time to figure things out, eh? It's not like she can avoid you forever, it's a tiny village."

His little brother merely smiled and said nothing – and that was when he knew that Takeru had never really given up on her.

Not even after five years.

—X—

Willis sighed deeply.

It was raining again, and what's worse, Hikari wasn't on duty today.

He sighed again. He was half hoping that a customer would appear soon, because he was really, really bored out of his wits. But he knew how things worked here: mothers would stock things up on Sundays, and they'd seriously buy things in large amounts so that they would not run out of it — and so that they wouldn't need to go back and forth to the grocery shop in such a wet weather.

Deciding he was thirsty, he stood up, and took out several yens and placed it into the cash register before going to the back of the shop (where the refrigerator was). When he was browsing over the drinks, he heard someone entering the shop. Fearing it was Mr. Hokama, he quickly called out to make sure.

"Uh — how may I help you?"

He waited. And then a voice came, "Oh, no— I'll manage on my own. Thanks!"

'_Oh no, thank_**you**_...!'_he thought as he silently sighed in relief. Had it been Mr. Hokama, he was done for ("YOU'RE SLACKING OFF AGAIN, YOU TWIT?").

But he frowned slightly, as he finally made up his mind on which drink to choose, because the customer was a guy, and he couldn't recognise the voice. One of the things that Willis prided himself with was his cool ability to identify someone by their voices. He then went back to the payment counter and sat down again. From where he was, he could actually see the unknown customer browsing over the stationary section.

He was taller than Willis, and was dressed very casually — a simple T-shirt, and a pair of trousers. This guy had shiny blonde hair — but he probably had dyed it, so Willis ignored it. But when he stepped in front of the counter, Willis noticed that he had blue eyes and fair skin. Only then did a thought came across his mind: _could this guy be Takeru Takaishi?_

Quietly, he observed as the other searched his pocket for his wallet — yeah…this dude could easily be Takeru. Every description that Hikari had given to him matched this person: a very fine look, blonde, shiny hair, a tall figure and a pair of blue eyes...

Well — the eyes didn't quite match what Hikari had told him. She said they were a pair of cold, unfriendly eyes…but the ones _this_guy had was nothing like that. Instead, if Willis had known better, he'd say that this guy merely lacked social ability, for he looked kind of shy and quiet.

"A-hah, found it," said the customer, smiling a bit, as he pulled out his wallet. Willis forced a smile in return. Among the things the customer was buying was a box of crayons…

Willis lifted his gaze to meet the other's eyes (Willis was slightly shorter). "You're…"

"New here, yeah," replied the other. Willis nodded a bit.

"Takeru, right?" he asked coolly.

The customer looked surprised, and this at once told Willis that he _was_Takeru Takaishi. "Have we met before?" Takeru asked, smiling a bit but looking a little confused also.

"So you _are_Takeru Takaishi?"

As quickly as he had been surprised, Takeru's expression suddenly changed. What it was, Willis couldn't quite tell, but it was something between suspicion and displeasure. After a while, Takeru spoke rather casually:

"Yeah. You a friend of Hikari's?"

Willis wondered how Takeru had come up with a conclusion that he, Willis, was a friend of Hikari's so soon. Like, everyone in town would've known about the new family by now, for it was a small town — and so everyone could've guessed his name. It didn't necessarily mean that if someone knew Takeru's name, he was a friend of Hikari's.

"Why the sudden conclusion?" Willis asked testily. Smiling slightly, Takeru said,

"Hikari's the only one who still knows me as Takeru 'Takaishi'." At his confused face, he added, "That was my name, yes — my name _five years ago._ She must've forgotten to give you the recent updates," said Takeru with a small smile. "May I know the sum, please, so I can pay for all that?" he asked politely, nodding at the items on the payment counter.

Willis, too, looked at the items, and then he smiled. "The replacement for Aoi-chan's broken crayons?" And then he added, a little quieter, "…And no doubt it's an attempt to get back to Hikari again, too…"

But Takeru heard it, anyway. And it seemed as if Willis had crossed the line.

"You're giving a bad impression of yourself, you know. It's fine that you know a lot about me (and a little freaky if I may say so), but you only know me through Hikari—"

"Yes, Hikari's told me about you," said Willis, feeling annoyed and angered with the fact that Takeru could still defend himself after what he had done to Hikari. "I know, if not a lot, a bit, about you and your attitude — and about your control freak of a grandmother. But I admit, I don't know you so well yet, but I have to say this to you: don't ruin her life any further."

To his surprise, Takeru suddenly smiled. "Wow, you've got some love issues to settle, mate." Willis blushed a bit, and he silently agreed with Hikari when she said that Takeru was a good observer. "You're a caring friend — I envy Hikari. I've never had many friends myself!" he added rather mockingly.

Willis was not amused. "I will do anything and everything in my power to help Hikari," he said in a deadly voice, glaring at Takeru.

Takeru shrugged. "Okay, if you say so," he simply said. "Now — are you gonna total that up, or am I allowed to walk away without paying?"

With a sour expression, Willis totalled up the price and Takeru paid for it. Calmly still, he walked out of the shop, to his car, and then he drove away.

* * *

**A/N: **Had Takeru been the same Takeru in chapter 2, I think he'd punch Willis already.

_The focus of your heart, who is it?_

_The focus of your heart, is it me?_

AAAH. *dies*


	6. Chapter 6

5. The Annual Sports Day Part I

It had been decided: the annual Sports Day that year would be held on Saturday. Mr. Sawamoto, a rather mysterious woodcutter who had been living in Kurokuro for almost thirty years, had 'predicted' the weather for Saturday: apparently it wouldn't be raining, and that, indeed, was suitable for their event. Mr. Sawamoto hadn't been wrong so far – he had successfully predicted the weather for the annual Sports Day for ten years in a row now. (He could also do other supernatural stuff, such as treating toothaches with just a snap of his fingers, finding your kitten by just knowing its name and the colour of its fur, and he could also make your hunger go away if you could give him ingredients for him to make dinner).

The Yagamis were all excited about it, although one of them had been feeling really anxious and nervous as the day approached. Mr. Yagami and the rest of the men in the village were in charge of most of the things such as putting up tents for the food and drinks section, preparing appropriate items for the games, etc. Taichi, of course, helped out with these things, and so did Yamato Ishida, the eldest son of the new family that had recently moved in.

Hikari had dreaded this very thing: she was sure that Yamato Ishida would tell Taichi about his family members, and she knew that Taichi would recognise Takeru's name. She hadn't told Taichi anything about her meeting with Takeru at the kindergarten, but eventually she knew she would have to spill the beans. It happened a day before the Sports Day took place.

"I'm home! Hey, that smells awesome!" came Taichi's voice from the front of the house. Hikari merely grinned as her brother skipped into the kitchen and sniffed the air.

"How did it go, oniichan?" Hikari asked. "I thought you were never coming home!"

"Nah, we put up the last tent rather late because it was raining earlier," Taichi said, putting on an apron and stirring the soup on the stove. "Almost everyone was there, even that Ishida guy!"

Hikari froze for a bit. _Which Ishida guy?_

"Uh...which Ishida guy?" she casually asked.

"The eldest one, Yamato Ishida. You know, _Takeru's brother?"_

_Oh snap. You're done for, Hikari..._ Very slowly, she turned around to face her brother, who was looking at her with an expression that said, 'well, what d'you have to say to _that, _sister?' She smiled sheepishly.

"How could you not tell me anything about this, Hika?" he asked, putting down the ladle and placing a hand on his hip. Hikari avoided her brother's eyes and went on chopping the onions.

"I'm just...I'm still shocked, I guess," she mumbled. It _was _true. She was still rather shocked with what happened. Here she was, doing rather great with her life after a good deal of struggling to forget Takeru in the past – and then, just like that, he was in her life again.

"You wanna talk about it?" said Taichi slowly, breaking the short silence between them. Hikari took a deep breath and placed the knife down. "I mean...must be really hard for you. C'mon, don't bottle your feelings up like that, it's not healthy, you know?"

Hikari smiled at her brother's comment. "It's like...I dunno...seeing a kitten that you've given away five years ago because you're allergic to cats..."

Miko, their cat, sort of froze on the spot where she was when she heard the words 'allergic to cats', as if she could understand what they were talking about, but none of the Yagamis noticed this behaviour. The elder Yagami was trying his best to play the good big brother role while the younger one was lost in her thoughts.

"One moment I was all pissed off about the crayons, and the next thing I know, I was panicking like a fish out of water," Hikari said quietly. "He's just...suddenly...right _there._ In front of me. I didn't know what to do or say – I'm so dead tomorrow."

"Well," said Taichi after a while, "don't worry – you won't be left alone with him tomorrow. The whole village will be all over them, so you can avoid them easily, amirite?"

Hikari merely smiled at this.

"Oh – oh! By the way, what the heck happened to his fiancé? Huh? Huh?" Taichi said excitedly. "Any ideas?"

Hikari suddenly felt hot as she heard this question – his fiancé? Catherine Leroy... It was like being slapped in the face when she thought of that name. She had been trying to forget Catherine just as much as she had tried to forget Takeru. Just hearing that name was enough to make _something _stir from deep inside her. Was it anger? Jealousy? Sadness? Pain? It was probably all of that.

Where was she now? What had happened to her? An image of a graceful young lady suddenly crossed Hikari's mind: tall, slender, with fair skin and beautiful wavy golden hair...

Hikari began to chop the carrots quickly. "I dunno," she mumbled, answering Taichi's question. "She's probably in some fancy college, doing ballet and piano or something..."

"Hmm," said Taichi thoughtfully, "the last I heard, she's anaemic, right? What do you—?"

"I don't really _care,_ Taichi," Hikari cut across him, moving away quickly to transfer the carrots into the pot. Right on cue, their father came home, announcing happily that everything that needed to be done for the Sports Day had been done. "Well, why don't you go and see what dad needs? He might be tired," Hikari said to Taichi, who looked uncertain for a moment.

"...Will you be okay?"

"I'm fine," she said dismissively. Her brother gave her a long stare before exiting the kitchen, saying, "Hey, dad! Want a cup of coffee or somethin'?"

Hikari stopped stirring the soup and sighed once more. Why did it sting so much, even after five freakin' years? After all those crying sessions and picture-burning ceremonies, it seemed like she still had not managed to let go of it... She didn't like this feeling. She didn't like being jealous of someone...because that was not the kind of person she was.

"Get yourself together!" Hikari said, scolding herself as she tried to forget Catherine Leroy, her beautiful face, her golden hair, and her fiancé.

—X—

Hikari woke up when a familiar tune reached her ears. Stretching, she rolled to her side and slowly opened her eyes. Lying on the mattress next to her on the floor was her friend and neighbour, Miyako Inoue. _(A/N: Hikari's house was the traditional Japanese house, you know, where people sleep on the mattress and the doors are those that can slide from side to side? X3 Yeah, that one)._

Miyako was a year older than Hikari, but her spirit was the spirit of a teenage girl who had just discovered the power of gossiping. Hikari didn't know when Miyako got into her room, but she was ready to bet that Miyako's parents had already locked the doors of her house when she came back late last night. It wasn't the first time, all right — whenever this happened, Hikari's grandmother would kindly invite Miyako to sleep over for the night.

After the death of her mother (pretty soon after Aoi-chan was born), Hikari's father had decided to move to her grandmother's house. That was how the Yagamis ended up here in Kurokuro.

Still rubbing her eyes, Hikari sat up and looked around for the source of that familiar tune. By now, she could recognise the chorus of the newest hit song, '_Colour My Life'_by the Teenage Wolves. She finally found the source of this music — it was coming from Miyako's cell phone (which lay next to its snoring owner). Shaking her head, Hikari reached over and turned the alarm clock off.

"Miyako," she said, shaking her friend's shoulder. "Miyako! Wake up."

"Huh—? Wha...? Yes, mother!" said the purple haired Miyako, sitting up quickly.

"It's just me, silly," Hikari said, throwing a pillow at Miyako, who looked pretty confused. "You came into my house last night, remember?"

"Oh," said Miyako, already lying down on the mattress once more. "Yeah, yeah I did..."

"Did you come home late again?" Hikari asked, folding her blanket.

"Hmm..."

"Where were you?"

"Mmm – mmhmm..."

"Fine, don't tell me," said Hikari, now folding her mattress. "But weren't you the one who was excited about the Sports Day and was like, 'I gotta sleep early so I'll be fresh and energetic for my team!' and stuff?"

Miyako yawned and rolled over to the other side. "...What're you talking about?" she said sleepily.

"The – Sports –Day! Remember?" Hikari said, grabbing the pillow Miyako was hugging. She then watched as Miyako's sleepy eyes grew round.

"That's _today?" _Miyako gasped, sitting up once more.

"Yep," Hikari simply said, putting away her blanket and mattress. In one swift movement, Miyako shoved her glasses on, rolled her mattress and pushed it into a corner of the room before doing the star jump.

"Yosh!" she said. "I'm SO ready for today! I heard Sakura's brother's dropping by from college just to join us – and you have to admit it, he is CUTE."

Hikari shook her head at Miyako's enthusiasm. She had been on a hunt for "The Perfect Boyfriend" ever since Hikari had first moved in. Hikari knew that Willis was on Miyako's list, but for some odd reason, talking about Willis in _that _way had always been awkward between them. They used to gossip a lot about Willis when he first arrived – Miyako even thought of confessing to Willis some years back, but she didn't do it. From that day on, Hikari never knew what Miyako's feelings _really _were when it came to their American friend.

"Oh, by the way," Miyako gasped as she did her twentieth star jump, "I heard something interesting last night at the bar!"

"Oh?" Hikari hugged her knees, prepared to listen to the newest gossip.

"You know the new family? The Ishida family?"

"Yeah, what about them?" Hikari asked flatly. _People seriously need to stop asking me if I knew them or not!_

"The eldest," Miyako gasped, "Yamato Ishida – _huff_ – is actually Matt – _huff_ – from _The Teenage Wolves!"_

This was indeed something interesting. Miyako had been fascinated with _The Teenage Wolves _since they first debuted early last year. They had released a mini album and had been lying low ever since – the members were really protective of their private lives, so not much was known about them.

"Just _think!"_ Miyako went on. "Matt, right here in Kurokuro, attending our little insignificant—"

"Don't let Mr. Yamada hear that," Hikari piped in (Mr. Yamada was Kurokuro's enthusiastic 'mayor', who was really psyched about the event).

"—_Insignificant _Sports Day! I can ask for his autograph and take a picture with him and EVERYTHING!" Here, Miyako gave a high-pitched squeal.

"Gosh, Miyako, keep it down! You disturbed me from my awesome dream!"

"Morning, oniichan," Hikari grinned. Taichi had stuck his head into the room, looking both sleepy and irritated. "Sorry about that."

"You woke Aoi-chan as well," Taichi grumbled as the five-year-old appeared at the door, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, hey, Aoi-chan!" Miyako said, instantly kneeling by the little girl. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"Mm-hm," said Aoi-chan, settling down on Miyako's lap.

"Well, let's all have some breakfast," Hikari said, "and then we can have some fun today!"

Both Miyako and Aoi-chan cheered at this, and Taichi complained about the noise, but afterwards he joined in the excitement all the same. Everyone was chirpy that day, even their grandmother, and Hikari wished and wished that she could be as excited and happy as the rest of them, but she knew that on that day, it would finally be impossible to avoid Takeru.

—X—

The weather was absolutely lovely.

It was _teasing_ her. She was so nervous inside, she was almost sure that there was a storm coming – but obviously the storm was only within her. The day was absolutely nice.

Almost everyone was there: they were scattered across the field, chatting to their friends and neighbours while waiting for the event to start. Some people, like Taichi and Miyako and Willis, noticed that Hikari was not her usual cheerful self, and except for Taichi (who knew _why _she was behaving that way), the other two were rather worried about her.

"Are you feeling ill, Hika?" Miyako asked, and Mr. Yamada finally decided to show up for the opening speech.

"Yeah, you look pale," Willis agreed, placing a hand on her forehead. "Nope. No fever."

"I'm fine," Hikari said, blushing slightly. She had spotted the Ishidas earlier – they were halfway across the field from where she stood – and she had been staring at Takeru without realising it: he was wearing a simple green short-sleeve T-shirt, a pair of black trousers, and a cap, which he wore backwards. He looked genuinely happy and was saying something to Mrs. Matsuda. Hiroki-kun, who was with him, didn't look as friendly, and was standing real close to Takeru. "I'm just, uh, a little nervous about the aerobics warm-up! You know how much I suck at it, so..."

"Lame excuse!" Miyako said, squinting her eyes at Hikari. "You're nervous about meeting Matt, aren't you?"

"Yeah...and that," Hikari mumbled. She noticed that Willis had finally understood what this was all about, because she saw him staring at the tall blonde at the other side of the field afterwards.

"Don't worry! You just stick with me, and I bet we're gonna do fine!" Miyako said happily. "Ooh, look! Mr. Yamada's ready for his speech!"

Indeed, he was. A moment after that, the man in his late fifties called for people's attention and had began his speech: "Good morning, Kurokuro! How are you today?"

The villagers gave a mixed reply of "Good!" and "Fine, thank you!" and "We're okay, what about you?"

"Well! Thanks to Mr. Sawamoto, we can once more carry out our Annual Sports Day. You, sir, have _never _been wrong so far – I thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

Mr. Yamada bowed in the direction of the woodcutter, who simply bowed back with a mysterious expression on his face.

"This year, our Sports Day is gonna be more exciting," Mr. Yamada pressed on with a bright face, "because we have a new addition to our small community – we haven't been expanding much, the last one to join us was Willis, and that was, what? How many years back was that? Three? Four? I do believe it's been—"

Here, Mrs. Yamada nudged at her husband slightly, saying, "Honey, you're getting sidetracked."

"Oh – oh, yes, I am! Sorry, folks, I blabber when I'm excited," Mr. Yamada said, grinning. "I was saying: this year's Sports Day will be more exciting, because we have a new family here in Kurokuro. Now, you've already know the name, I presume, but not all of you have met them. So I'd like the Ishidas to please, step forward here with me. Yes, that's it, come on!"

People started to applause as the Ishidas approached the microphone stand where Mr. Yamada was. Mr. Ishida had this big smile on his face while his wife looked rather embarrassed but pleased at the same time. Hiroki-kun followed his aunt closely and wouldn't budge from her side, while his two older cousins stood calmly behind their parents. Now everyone was eyeing them, and Hikari noticed that a group of teenage girls began to whisper excitedly to each other before giggling when they saw Yamato and Takeru.

"Well, it's not every day you get to see cool blonde guys!" Miyako whispered once she noticed what Hikari was looking at. "Those schoolgirls are just over-excited!"

"Yeah, over-excited like you?" Hikari whispered back, and Miyako simply squealed silently.

"Hey," Willis piped in silently, "_I'm _a cool blonde guy – you see me every day!"

"Oh, hush, you!" Miyako said, turning her attention to the Ishidas once more.

"We're very thankful to have moved here," Mrs. Ishida was saying, and her husband nodded in agreement. "And we're looking forward to get to know all of you!"

Hikari couldn't help but notice that they looked exactly the way she remembered them from five years ago (but with obvious signs of ageing). Seeing them gathered together right there just brought back so many memories: without noticing what she was doing, Hikari's hand slowly touched her right cheek, where she had been slapped by a certain someone's grandmother five years ago during a basketball match... That was the first time she had met Takeru's whole family...

Without realising it, she was staring at him again – and this time, he caught her eyes. They stared at each other for a moment. Hikari was just wondering how someone's eyes could be so blue when he suddenly averted his eyes. She quickly did the same, feeling herself going red.

Why did he avert his eyes? She was sure that _she _was going to look away first, but he beat her to it... Hikari knew that it shouldn't bother her, but it did: _why _did he look away? Was he as nervous as she was about the Sports Day, or was he simply not interested in her?

...

Well, if he _wasn't _interested in her, shouldn't she be celebrating it?

"Hikari-chan, are you sure you're okay?"

Miyako's voice managed to pull her back to reality. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Her purple haired friend narrowed her eyes in disbelief, so Hikari gave a big grin. "Honest!"

"You're acting weird today, you know that?" said Miyako, but she dropped the issue. Hikari sighed in relief, only to face a worried-looking Willis.

"Don't worry," he said in a low voice, "he can't do anything to you."

"Yeah," she agreed, clapping with the rest of the neighbourhood as the Ishidas bowed after their little speech, "yeah, I know."

* * *

**A/N: **Oh, writer's block, I dislike you. :( Sorry guys, I wanted the chapter to be longer, but AAH. I'm writing the sixth chapter right now...dunno when it'll be up, though. D:


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Oh. My Goodness. OMG. OMFG, WTF, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?

AN UPDATE? O_Olll

(Hey guys, it's me again. Don't shoot.)

LONG chapter!The treat's on me, okay? XD I have been away for a long time, so, meh.

The title of this fanfic was sort of inspired by SHINee's _"Hello."_ Each time I am reminded of this fanfic, I remember that song, and vice versa.

Listening to it as I type. :D

* * *

6. The Annual Sports Day Part II

Ishida Takeru was aware of the people (mainly high school girls) staring at him and his brother on that morning, but he did his best to ignore them. For some odd reason, he was rather famous with the aunties here. The thought almost made him grin – he was ready to bet that not one single aunty would approach him five years ago, back when he was this unsmiling, troubled teen. Touching his toes one last time, he stretched his hands into the air before jogging on the spot. The warm-up session was over, but it just felt right to do his pre-basketball match ritual warm-up.

"Someone's psyched," Yamato said, placing a hand on Takeru's shoulder.

"Yeah – and someone's being all friendly out of the sudden," Takeru commented, nodding at Yagami Taichi who was standing a few feet away from them. Yamato had just gone over to the young man with that gravity-defying hairstyle to have a chat – from the looks of it, the two of them had formed a kind of friendship. He found it rather odd for Yagami Taichi for not punching Yamato on the face for what had happened to Hikari. "What d'you talk about?"

"Eh, the usual stuff," Yamato replied nonchalantly.

"Like _what?"_

His brother gave him a weird look and said, "Look, just because _you _won't talk to his sister, doesn't mean I can't talk to Taichi, okay?"

Takeru quickly ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't say anything like that," he mumbled.

"Calm down, lover boy," said Yamato, grinning at Takeru's pink face, "I just asked him about this Sports Day and how it usually works. Well – the Matsudas are the all-time champions: any family that has the Matsudas on their team will definitely win – they've been getting the first place for almost six years in a row! But this year, Taichi said other families might have a chance, since the eldest Matsuda son has moved away to attend college..."

Takeru let Yamato blabber on about the Sports Day and the odds of winning the event while he slowly shifted his gaze over to Hikari, who was standing at the other side of the field with her friends. Willis was handing her a small towel to wipe off the sweat on her forehead...

With that American guy around, Takeru knew that he would have a difficult time observing Hikari – just before the warm-up session began, for instance: he was silently observing how beautiful Hikari looked in the morning when he had accidentally caught Willis' eyes. His glare seemed to be saying, "Back off, Ishida – one wrong move and I'll snap you backbone into two!"

She was now joking with her purple-haired friend, and Takeru couldn't help but smile a small smile when he saw her laughing. Her shoulder-length hair was tied up neatly, and she still liked to wear hairclips, just like back then. She was wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of dark blue pants – and, to be honest, Takeru thought she looked absolutely lovely...her legs looked especially amazing...

_Oh, you did NOT just go there, Takeru._

Rubbing his nose violently, Takeru turned away, kicked a pebble on the grass, and, without saying a word to his (still blabbering) brother, he started to march away towards his parents.

"...and then at night, at the bar, there's gonna be this annual – Teeks? Hey, you listenin' man?"

It would definitely be difficult for Takeru to pay attention to the games if Hikari kept visiting his mind like this!

—X—

"Ladies aaaaaaaaaaaaand gentlemen! The Annual Tug-of-War is about to begin! Yes! What better way to warm things up than this little test of strength? Thaaat's right! Let me hear your battle cries now, folks, because the game is about – to – BEGIN!"

The morning sky echoed with different kinds of battle cries as the six teams got ready for the first game: tug-of war. The twenty-four-or-so families in Kurokuro had been randomly (yet equally) divided into six groups that would be going against each other throughout the Sports Day. Takeru had pretty much held his breath when Mr. Yamada began to announce the teams – "Fujitaka! Ishida! Seimaru! Inoue! Teeeaaam THREE!" – and he only managed to breathe normally when it was announced that the Yagamis would be in Team Five. Willis had joined the Hokamas, and was in Team Six.

The teams were divided into three pairs, and each pair would go against each other. The final two teams would proceed to the Ultimate Showdown, and whichever team won would score the first ten points of the day.

"Would the team leaders please proceed to the Box of Destiny?" Mr. Yamada's eldest son (who was pretty much the official announcer of the day) said in a grave voice, holding an ordinary box in his hands. "Now – this box contains the team numbers. You will be choosing your opponents now!"

"Woohoo, go dad!" Miyako Inoue, Hikari's purple-haired friend, cheered as Mr. Inoue placed his hand into the Box of Destiny. "I hope he picks a good team for us to go against!" she then said to Takeru.

"Yeah," he simply agreed.

"So, what d'you think of Kurokuro so far, Takeru-kun?" Miyako asked, smiling.

"Well, it's okay," he said, "and it's a lot closer to my college, so..."

"Oh! What's the name of your college?"

Takeru spent the next few minutes talking to Miyako about his college and what he was hoping to be in the future. The bespectacled girl was really easy to befriend (and she was a tad bit too energetic at times), and she had a lot to gossip about. Not long after that, Miyako brought up the name of Yamato's band.

"So, uh, is it true that you brother's _the _Matt from _The Teenage Wolves_?"

Takeru simply nodded. "But he'd appreciate it if people here don't make a fuss out of it."

"Oh! Right!" said Miyako, saluting and winking at him. Just then, Yamato passed by with Hiroki-kun, and she simply sighed in a dreamy way. But after a while, she changed the subject: "So, uh, that's Hiroki-kun, eh?"

"Yeah, that's him," Takeru said, smiling. "I guess the whole village knows what he did to Aoi-chan, huh?"

"Well, it's a small village," Miyako said. "But don't worry! Aoi-chan's a great kid – she's very friendly, like her sister, Hikari-chan. You've met her, right? At the kindergarten?"

"Uh...yeah, yeah I have—"

"There she is! Oh, she's on Team Five, eh?" Miyako then started to wave, and this caught Hikari's attention almost at once, and she waved back. After a while, she noticed Takeru standing next to her friend, and he smile sort of stiffen a little, but she politely bowed in his direction, so he bowed back. "See? They've forgiven Hiroki-kun, so you have nothing to worry about!" said Miyako.

"Yeah, I'm grateful for that," Takeru managed to say.

"Look, we're going against Team One!" Mr. Inoue announced, waving a piece of paper with number one on it.

"Oh, good job, dad," Miyako moaned, "the Matsudas are in that team!"

"Nah, don't worry," said Mr. Fujitaka, "we have the Ishidas in our team! These boys look tough – who knows, we might just win!"

While the rest of the team began to listen as Takeru's mother began to talk about him being in the college's basketball team, the blonde silently watched as Hikari's father pulled out a piece of paper with number four on it. He watched as Hikari cheered with her little sister, Aoi-chan, and began to feel himself going red. Just as he was going to look away, he caught Hikari's eyes. The smile on her face quickly faded – and that was enough to remind Takeru that it would be _years _before they could talk to each other like acquaintances.

All he could do now was to stare at her silently from across the field...

"Takeru-kun?"

He turned around upon feeling a small hand on his shoulder – and was quite surprised to see a young girl (probably around fourteen or fifteen years of age) standing next to him.

"Uh. Uh, yeah?"

The girl giggled. "C'mon, they're discussing strategies for the tug-of-war game."

"What _strategies _are there anyway? Just tug on the rope..." Takeru mumbled, and the girl giggled again, which pretty much made him frown a little.

"Oh, I'm sorry – I'm Fujitaka Chiharu. Nice to meet you!"

"Right, right...I'm, well, Ishida Takeru. Nice to meet you too."

When they turned around to join the rest of the team, Takeru noticed several other schoolgirls looking at him and giggling whenever he accidentally caught their eyes.

"_Oh great," _thought Takeru.

—X—

"One – two – _tug!"_

Takeru joined his team members as they chanted, _"Tug!"_

It had been one heck of a game, but they had defeated Team One, and had moved on to fight against Team Two since they had finished the battle against Team Six first. It took a while, but Team Four managed to defeat Team Five just as Team Three began to go against Team Two.

The rope was slowly, but surely, moving to the left – in Team Three's direction – and that just increased the determination of the team members. Miyako had been chanting her own military-like cheer for the past three minutes (_"Team Three's gonna win this game, sing it if you feel the same!"_), and then the rest of the team just joined in.

"Come on, oniichan! Pull! Pull!" Hiroki-kun cheered with the rest of the kids who were too short to join in.

"Team Three is really giving their all right now!" said the announcer. "If they win, they will go against Team Four, which consists of the Okawas, the Itos, my family, the Yamadas, and the Watanabes!"

"Team Three's gonna win this game!" chanted Mr. Inoue.

"Sing it if you feel the same!" the rest of the team joined in.

"Team Three!" Mr. Ishida chanted.

"_Team Three!"_

"LET'S WIN THIS THING!" Miyako exploded from the very back of the line, tugging at the rope.

"WIIIINN!"

It was as if the rest of the team had given their all: the tug was a mighty one, and caught Team Two off guard. Mr. Kobayashi, the leader of Team Two, began to stumble forwards and the rest of Team Two seemed to simply lose their grip on the rope. This, of course, affected Team Three as well: the team members began to stumble backwards, collapsing into each other, while the spectators cheered for their victory.

"Oh – whoa, steady there!" Takeru said as Fujitaka Chiharu, who was in front of him throughout the game, stumbled backwards into his arms. The schoolgirl giggled and turned red before apologising. She quickly joined her friends afterwards.

"That's one very bold girl, all right," said Miyako, standing next to Takeru with her hands on her hips. "Everyone's just over-excited about seeing two very cool guys moving in. The last time girls were this excited was back when Willis moved in."

"And when was that?" Takeru asked casually. This was the chance to learn about his...rival.

"About three and-a-half years ago," said Miyako. "But Willis was different from you, I guess. He flirted with the girls and basically just went with the flow."

"...What's he doing in Japan, anyway?"

"Oh, he's a student. He's originally from Colorado, U.S.A. Sometimes he went back there during summer, but lately he just spends his summer here."

Takeru wondered a little about this – was it because Willis wanted to be closer to Hikari? He only needed to scan the field once to find them: Willis and Hikari had been sitting next to each other all this while, watching Team Three go against Team Two. Takeru had noticed that whenever Hikari was with Willis, she seemed to be able to forget the fact that he, Takeru, was right there on the field and that she could calm down a tiny bit. While it was a relief to watch her be her natural self, it was a torture for him to know that Willis was the one who could do that to her.

"Oh, would you look at that!" Miyako said angrily, bringing Takeru back to reality. "Those schoolgirls are all over Matt now!"

—X—

"Team Two has scored five points, while Team Four has scored TEN points so far!" said the announcer. "Things aren't looking too good for Teams One, Six and Five – they haven't scored any points yet. And the leading team for today has the new family, the Ishidas, with them – Team Three is in the lead with FIFTEEN points, ladies and gentlemen!"

There was a mixture of "yeah!"s and "boo!"s as this was announced.

"Don't worry guys; it's time to even it out! Up next is the Balloon Wars – that's right! A balloon will be tied to your foot, and you must not let anyone else stomp on it! Now, this game requires focus and energy – you need to observe which opponents are letting their guards down, and you need energy to jump about to prevent anyone from stomping on your balloon – and also energy to stomp on someone else's balloons! Each team must send out five representatives to participate...choose wisely! You have ten minutes!"

"Okay, okay, gather round, everyone!" said Mr. Inoue, and Team Three began to crouch around him, arms on each other's shoulders. "It's obvious that we need young people to do this – I mean, you need to basically jump about and avoid getting your foot stumped on – so parents, no hard feelings, but we're not participating in this, okay?"

"I'm fine with that!" said Mrs. Inoue.

"Yeah, my back kind of hurts after that tug-of war game," Mr. Ishida admitted.

"Very well," said Mr. Inoue, "now – any of you remember what the Matsudas did last year?"

"Yeah, they sent only teens and kids," said Fujitaka Chiharu.

"Exactly," said Mr. Inoue, "so we're gonna steal that strategy: only teens and kids! Okay – we need five people. Any volunteers?"

"Ooh, me!" said Miyako immediately. "I love this game, ha!"

"Can I go?" Hiroki-kun asked slowly.

"Sure you can!" said Mr. Inoue. "Anyone else? C'mon!"

"I'll go too, then," Takeru said, raising his hand into the air.

"Atta boy!"

"Yamato? Won't you give it a shot?" Mrs. Ishida asked, nudging her eldest son on the shoulder.

"Oh? And what? Get a sore foot afterwards?" Yamato mumbled. "No thanks."

"What's that? Are you _scared?" _Takeru mocked, grinning.

"Shut up, Teeks."

"Oh, you _are _scared."

Yamato reached out an arm and smacked Takeru on the head. The latter collapsed onto the grass, laughing silently.

"Fine, I'll do it!"

"And me!" said Chiharu quickly, raising her hand into the air ("Urgh, that girl! She never misses an opportunity, does she?" Miyako hissed).

"Right, awesome!" said Mr. Inoue, standing up. "Team Three's ready, then!"

The five of them – Takeru, Miyako, Hiroki-kun, Yamato and Chiharu – gathered under one of the tents where the representatives of other teams were waiting. It turned out that almost _all_ the teams had sent teens and kids for the Balloon War. They had to wait for Team One and Team Four to send their representatives, so every girl was basically interviewing Yamato (and Miyako was first in line, of course). Takeru preferred to just fade into the background, so he sat quietly in one shady corner near a tree.

"Oranges, young man?" a voice suddenly said: the mysterious woodcutter was offering him an orange that he had peeled.

"Uh...yes, please. Thank you."

Just as randomly as he had appeared, he was gone the next moment. Takeru looked around for the man, but could not find him, so he proceeded to eating the orange in his hand while watching Yamato being surrounded by schoolgirls (and Miyako). Somewhere beyond the tent, he could see Willis' yellow hair (he was talking to Mr. Hokama animatedly), but Takeru could not spot Hikari. Before he had the chance to look for her, her voice filled the air.

"_There _you are! I told you to wait for me – you said we're gonna share Mr. Sawamoto's oranges!"

The next thing he knew, Hikari was handing him a bottle of plain water, chatting with him as if they were friends.

"I'm good at this game, you know that," she said cheerfully after taking a gulp out of her own water bottle, "and we're gonna take your team down, Willis, mark my words!"

Takeru couldn't help but smile at her energetic behaviour. "Sorry, I think you've got the wrong person."

Then, for the first time since she sat down, she turned to look at his face. Her chocolate eyes widened as she saw his blue ones, her smile disappeared, and she literally froze on the spot for several moments. Takeru laughed a little before throwing his gaze across the field.

"He's over there," he said, pointing carefully at Willis.

"Oh." She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it back. Her face slowly turned pink.

Hugging his knees, he looked at her calmly. "You thought I was Willis. I get it, don't worry."

Silence visited them as Hikari avoided his eyes, her face turning red by the minute. Takeru didn't really mind being in this awkward situation: he could look at her up-close...he had missed her face for five long years now. It was amazing how five years could change someone from a pretty teenage girl to this beautiful young lady sitting next to him...

"I...I'm so sorry," she managed to blurt out after a while. "Y-you had an orange in your hand – earlier, Willis took one, too – I – I thought...I thought you were—"

"I told you it's okay," he cut across her. She turned even redder on the face, and said nothing. Takeru raised the water bottle and asked, "Can I still have this, though?"

Hikari stole a glance to see what he was holding up, and quickly looked away. She nodded slowly. "...Yeah... Go ahead."

"Thanks."

Takeru unscrewed the cap of the bottle and drank out of it. Time seemed to have slowed down somehow – every minute felt like hours as they sat there in awkward silence. They just sat there, watching the others laughing and the kids running around while waiting for the next event to start. It was then that Takeru managed to find something to talk about: he saw Aoi-chan initiating a conversation with Hiroki-kun. Both kids looked shy, but things seemed to be going well.

"I see Aoi-chan is very much like you," he said, breaking the silence. There was a moment where Hikari just stared at the two kids before turning redder. "Back then, you wouldn't stop bothering me even when I'd made it clear that I didn't want to be disturbed."

He paused, watching Hiroki-kun struggle with Aoi-chan's friendliness as the girl offered him some oranges. He was also waiting for Hikari to say something, but she remained quiet – so he moved on. Taking out a small, carefully wrapped box from his pocket, he placed it on the grass between them.

"I know it's not the same as her earlier set of crayons, but that's all Hiroki-kun's pocket money could afford," Takeru said. Hikari didn't move, but she shifted her gaze to the box of crayons next to her. She hesitated.

"...Thank you, that's very thoughtful of you," she finally said, taking the box of crayons before quickly looking away once more. It looked as if she was about to say something, when suddenly the group of girls surrounding Yamato began to squeal and clap their hands. Takeru turned just in time to see Yamato signing the hem of a girl's T-shirt with a marker pen. Miyako's shirt was already signed.

"Your friend is really fond of my brother's band," Takeru said. "How long have you two known each other?"

Here, Hikari looked uncertain – should she answer, or should she just shut up? He could almost hear her brain trying to decide what to do next. Silently, Takeru sighed.

"It's going to be really difficult to keep pretending like we don't know each other, you know."

This seemed to have flicked a switch in her brain. "Well, what're you suggesting?" she replied in a flat voice, still not meeting his eyes. "Pretend like the past didn't happen and just play along?"

"I didn't say anything about forgetting the past," Takeru said, finally understanding what this was all about. She was hurt, _still _hurt, and he understood that... "Acknowledge the past – and that's it. We don't need to get caught up in it..."

Silence.

"_That _coming from me is really difficult to listen to, I know," he said after a while, "but I really don't think I can go on like this. I dunno about you, but it's...well...it's difficult. For me. I'd explode anytime soon if this keeps up."

Hikari refused to look at him as he said this.

"Takeru-kun, look! Look!"

The next moment, Miyako was in front of them jumping up and down and squealing, her face red.

"Your brother signed my T-shirt! Matt signed my T-shirt! Hikari-chan, _look!"_

Deciding to give Hikari more time to ponder on what he had said, Takeru stood up to leave. "I'm gonna have to leave my cell with my dad – don't want it jumping out of my pocket or anything. Miyako-san, call me when the game's about to start, okay?"

"Okay!" said Miyako, saluting him before she turned to Hikari and went on talking about Matt.

—X—

"Kurokuro!" said Mr. Yamada after ten minutes. "Are we ready to do this?"

"YEAH!" the crowd yelled back.

"All right – I have right here with me...a cap with six pieces of paper!" said Mr. Yamada, walking towards the contestants, stretching out the hand that held the cap. "Now...pick your destiny!"

Takeru saw Willis grinning at Mr. Yamada as the cap was pointed towards him.

"Obviously we cannot have all of you jumping and stomping at the same time," said Mr. Yamada, "so we'll have two teams going against each other at one time. Now, Willis my boy – pick a number!"

Everyone watched closely as Willis pulled out a piece of paper and unrolled it. He raised it into the air: the paper had a large "2" on it.

"There you have it – team six is going against team 2!" Mr. Yamada then moved down to Team 5 – Hikari's team. Takeru watched closely as the eldest Ichirou daughter pulled out a piece of paper. Squealing with her two sisters, she then put up her hand. The number written on it was "3."

Right there and then, Takeru and Hikari were looking into each other's eyes again ("Oh," said Miyako, "now those Ichirou girls are getting excited about Matt! Do I have a chance at all? EVERYONE seems to want him!")

"This means," said Mr. Yamada, "by default, Team 1 is going against Team 4! All right – we have our contestants, we have our balloons – game starts in five minutes! Everyone get readyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Here, he blew his whistle, and Takeru looked away from Hikari as his team moved towards one section of the field to get their balloons tied to their feet. While he was tying the balloon on a string, he quietly snuck a glance at Willis' team: the American dude did not look as playful as he did earlier when Mr. Yamada was pointing the cap at him. Instead, Willis kept looking at Team 5 – Hikari's team – again and again, as if to make sure she was okay. Takeru stopped observing Willis soon afterwards, knowing that Willis would probably send a death glare his way if he caught his eyes.

—X—

It was inevitable.

Trying to settle down _thirty _young people was difficult. After much delay (balloons bursting unexpectedly, sulking children, and non-cooperative strings), everyone was finally ready. The field was large enough for them to have three Balloon Wars simultaneously. All around them, family and team members were already cheering for them.

"All right, children!" said Mr. Yamada, who was in the middle of the field. "Listen carefully! You will have three adults watching the progress of your game, so once you're disqualified, they will know. Quickly leave the battle field once your balloon has been stomped on to avoid being pushed around and stuff. And remember! Each team's balloons are colour coded! Do not stomp on a teammate's balloon, or they will be qualified!"

At the moment, Hikari and Takeru were standing at the opposite sides of each other. He wasn't looking at her – instead, he was kneeling by his cousin, saying something to the little boy, who grinned and laughed in return. Takeru himself was grinning... It was a rather weird sight to Hikari, really. Takeru had never been much of a smiling person – he used to have this cold stare all the time, and she only managed to see him crack a smile when they became a c...

"Onechan!"

She jumped at this, and turned around. Aoi-chan was waving at her.

"Hikari-nechan, Taichi-niichan! Good luck!" said the little girl, who was sitting with their grandmother under a tree. Hikari waved back, smiling.

"You ready, little sister?" Taichi asked, suddenly standing by her side.

"Yeah. I am," she said confidently, when the truth was, she had checked herself just in time. Had she let her train of thoughts wander on...

"Ready!" Mr. Yamada was saying. "Set...!"

The shrill sound of Mr. Yamada's whistle filled the morning air.

"GO!"

Almost at once, everyone started to hop on one foot, lifting the one with the balloon tied up to it. Screams filled the air as people tried to stomp on one another's balloon. Within minutes, the sound of balloons popping (followed by a yell or a scream) quickly began to take over the field. Hikari hopped along, screaming as Miyako stomped her foot, almost popping Hikari's orange balloon.

"Hey, come back here, you!" Miyako giggled as Hikari began to hop away. She stuck out her tongue.

"No way, man!" she laughed, hopping away. It was absolutely, fantastically chaotic: she didn't even know how many teammates were still in the game (A/N: "YOU JUST LOST THE GAME, KEKEKE!"), but that didn't stop her from stomping on her first victim's balloon – Fujitaka Chiharu's. The girl screamed, lost her balance, and fell onto the ground.

"Sorry!" Hikari said, hopping away. "No hard feelings, eh, Chiharu-chan–"

At that moment, Miyako caught up with her, placing one hand on her shoulder. "Gotcha!"

Hikari yelled and tried to hop away, but Miyako had a rather strong grip on her shoulder. The two of them laughed and hopped this way and that, avoiding each other's stomping feet until finally Hikari managed to pull away from Miyako.

She hopped backwards, hit a few people accidentally, lost her balance, and finally began to stumble forth. She screamed and braced herself for the fall, when someone else in front of her accidentally collided with her, and they held on to each other. Hikari had grabbed the person's arms in order to balance herself, and the other was holding on to her arms rather firmly, too.

That person was Takeru.

Both of them were panting and grinning, for the game was indeed fun and made everyone laugh.

"Sorry!" she gasped.

"Oh – no – it was my bad," Takeru quickly said, his blue eyes wide, his face flushed red. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Hikari said, then, acting on impulse, "but you're out of the game!"

With that, she stomped on Takeru's blue balloon, and it popped with a loud sound. Hikari grinned and began to hop away, leaving behind an amused Takeru. She saw him smiling and shaking his head before making his way out of the 'battle field.'

For some reason, that interaction seemed to have lifted a very heavy burden off her shoulders. She felt...oddly relieved. Why was that so? Was it because she had been holding back so much ever since they first met at the kindergarten? Takeru's earlier words quickly came to her mind – _"I dunno about you, but it's...well...it's difficult. For me. I'd explode anytime soon if this keeps up."_ – yes...she had bottled up a lot of emotions, and she, too, would have exploded anytime soon.

But instead, Takeru's balloon had exploded in her place. She had stomped her foot with all her might (she had just realised this), as if she was trying to stomp out every bitter memory from five years ago...

Hikari felt lighter as she hopped on, laughing and screaming and stomping on other people's balloons (including Miyako's).

She felt a _lot _lighter.

—X—

The day passed on rather smoothly from that point onward for Hikari. Her team had won the Balloon War against Team Three, and went on to challenge Team Two, and later Team Five – and her team became the victor for the Balloon War. All the sore feet were worth it as their team began to gain points.

No further event had thrown the two of them together afterwards – in some games, Takeru's team would have lost in the first round and thus did not meet Hikari's team on the next levels, and in some other games, Hikari's team got disqualified before they got the chance to challenge Takeru's team.

Her day was, surprisingly, going well. Team Five (Hikari's team) managed to gain so much points that soon, they were the team with the third-highest points. The first was Team One (the one with the Matsudas) and in second place was Team Three, Takeru's team.

The games went on, only to stop to make way for lunchtime. Families and friends began to eat together in groups, spreading their picnic mats and sitting down. Hikari caught sight of Takeru sitting down hesitantly next to his brother, who was being interviewed by a group of four-or-so girls (one of which was Miyako).

"Hey," came Willis' voice, and a minute later, the guy was sitting next to her with his bento box in one hand and a bottle of carbonated drink in another.

"Hey," she replied, smiling and nodding towards Miyako, "look at her, being excited and all."

Willis grinned. "Yeah – well, she _is _a fan, after all..." He fell silent, so Hikari kept on eating, trying her best to ignore the guy across the field. She knew Willis was watching her closely now, and before long, he started to talk about it. "So, uh, he hasn't said anything to you, has he? Anything hurtful?"

"No, we didn't get the chance to talk properly," Hikari said, deciding to keep the conversation she had with Takeru earlier a secret.

"Well, that's good," Willis mumbled. Miyako came skipping towards the two of them later, singing happily. "Whoa, someone's extremely happy!"

"Yep!" said Miyako. "Matt and I have _a lot _in common – we both think that _Colour My Life_ should be the title track instead of _Kanashimi: Baby You're Gone. _I mean, that's such a depressing title! Ooh! And he seemed to prefer to talk to me more than he to the other girls – most probably due to my mature way of speaking my mind...!"

"Riiight," Hikari replied, "and squealing is mature, how?"

Here, Miyako began to squeal as she spied on Yamato from afar.

"Exactly my point," Hikari said, grinning (and Willis was shaking his head).

Lunch time went on in this peaceful manner until it was time for desserts. They were having, among others, apples as their desserts – and the committee had decided to turn dessert time into a game as well!

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Yamada said, suddenly standing up. "Now – I know we're all having a great time resting our minds and all, but we need a sort of warm-up exercise before we plunge into the next coming games. Exercise your competitiveness! I'd like to announce that _no one _is getting desserts until they fulfil this game. Everyone! To your teams!"

He blew his whistle, and people began to move, talking and laughing at the same time before settling down.

"Right," Mr. Yamada went on, "now here's the deal – each group will have ten apples provided to them. To win this game, you simply have to peel off the skin of the apple – peel it around the fruit to make a spiral out of the skin, and the spiral must be intact! The team that manages to peel the longest spiral apple skin wins!"

Excited murmur began to fill the air, and soon, they were provided with knives and peelers.

"Oh, this is gonna be easy!" Hikari said. "Even you can do it, right, Aoi-chan?"

Her five-year-old sister was holding a peeler and looked enthusiastic.

"Ready?" Mr. Yamada asked. "Set! ...GO!"

He blew his whistle, and everyone began to peel the apples.

That afternoon, life was good.

—X—

They had a several more games (musical chair for the younger children, throwing water balloons at your blind-folded partner, hoping he'd catch it without the balloon bursting, and then for the fathers, they had the 'put-makeup-on-your-wives' game – in which the Shiho pair won. They also played the 'fill-the-bottle-with-water-using-sponges (meaning they had to squeeze the water carefully into the drinking bottle), The Poisonous Ball (in which the Villain stood in the middle of a circle and threw a 'poisonous' ball at them, and those who got hit were disqualified – the tricky part was for the Villain not to hit his own teammates), and of course, the classic sac-race (except this was more like a sac-relay-race).

The it was time for the final game: the three-legged scavenger hunt.

* * *

**A/N: **Which I will continue later. :D Because I need to think of the riddles for this scavenger hunt... So far, I only have one riddle done. D:

So there you have it. Now you can threaten to shoot me, because knowing me, I'd probably disappear for another year or two before I update. So having a gun pointed at me would surely – in a way – motivate me to continue this fanfic as soon as possible.

Just FYI, other characters such as Koushiro and Ken will soon make their appearences~

:D


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Do star fruits grow naturally in Japan? Let's assume they do, eh? And you guys owe _Hana Yori Dango _and the fantastic Oguri Shun for this update – they inspired me greatly. xD

Also, forgive me if some details in this fanfic clash with what I had previously written. I haven't been writing for quite a while, and I kind of have forgotten my own plot, LOL.

Happy reading!

* * *

7. The Annual Sports Day Part III

"Okay, all right – are we going to send the same people off for this year's scavenger hunt?"

Hikari was sitting on the grass with the rest of her teammates, discussing the strategy for the final game. The parents had started to look tired, and the younger children were restless.

"Same people – hey, that's us, Hika-chan!" Taichi exclaimed, bobbing up and down. "We're pretty good at it, eh? Eh?"

"Yes, you guys definitely are," agreed Mr. Shiho, grinning. "You guys finished first two years ago, right? Too bad we were five points behind the Matsudas back then..."

"Well," said Hikari, "we can kick their butts this year, if you want us to."

"Yeah, we can totally do that!" Taichi piped in.

"Right then," said Mr. Shiho, "you're up next!"

-X-

"All righty, people! The Three-legged scavenger hunt is about to take place!" said Mr. Yamada. "I know the parents are getting tired, so we'll just let the kids handle this final event. In this game, you and your partner will have your legs tied to one another's, and you'll have to figure out the riddles! You've gotten your riddle, yes? Yes? Good! Now remember, we have people standing guard around the village so don't think about cheating! Also, you'll have to solve that riddle before you can get the next one – there are four riddles in total. So if you're stuck, think fast – or you'll fall behind!

"Remember, each riddle will lead you to a checkpoint and an object – bring these objects as proof that you have solved the clues, okay? Okay! Right, I know everyone's excited, so let's start this thing!"

This little speech was greeted with a loud cheer from the participants – and Hikari's had felt a weird sinking feeling when she saw that Team 3 had sent forth Miyako and Yamato to represent their team. She did a quick scan and saw Takeru sitting on the grass with the rest of his team. His attention, however, was not directed at Mr. Yamada, but at his mobile phone in his hand. He had a rather serious expression on his face as he texted away on his cell.

They had not shared a glance ever since the Balloon Wars took place...

"Okay, everyone over at the starting point!" Mr. Yamada instructed.

"Ready to kick some butt, Hika-chan?" Taichi asked as Mr. Yamada began to distribute the ropes to tie their legs together.

"You betcha," she replied, grinning. She knew that the two of them would argue a lot along the way, but that's just the way it works – they would still manage to complete the hunt earlier than most of the other teams.

"I'll be checking those knots, so there's no point in trying to cheat!" said the host as he paced down the line to check on the pairs of contestants one by one. From the corners of her eyes, Hikari could see Takeru standing up and making his way towards the 'Food & Drinks' tent with Hiroki-kun close by. She observed them as they each got a cup of orange juice.

"Okay there, Taichi-kun? Hikari-chan?" came Mr. Yamada's voice, making her jump.

"Yep!" she said, quickly averting her gaze from the tent. "Getting excited here!"

"Do your best – the riddle's kinda difficult this year, I tell you," said Mr. Yamada as he checked on the knot that Taichi had made.

"Any – _ehem – _'special hints' for us, Mr. Yamada, sir?" Taichi had cheekily asked.

"Oh, I can't do that, Taichi-kun, you know that!" said the older man, laughing. "Besides, you guys are one of the best hunters around – you'll be fine."

It took Mr. Yamada a few minutes to check on the rest of the hunters, and then the event was starting. He distributed the papers with the riddle written on them to the participants.

"Do not unfold the papers until I blow my whistle! Right... On your mark!"

Hikari stole a quick glance at the tent – he was watching...

"Get set!"

_Well, so what if he's watching? Everyone else is watching, too._

Mr. Yamada blew his whistle. "GO!"

She was aware of Taichi unfolding the piece of paper, so she quickly directed her attention to it, too. _Focus, Hikari, focus._

"Let's see what it says here – hey! Hey watch it, don't push –!"

In the midst of all the excitement, another team had accidentally shoved them from behind. Hikari managed to regain her balance, but Taichi had tripped and fallen hard to the ground. Since their legs were tied together, she was forced into a sitting position next to Taichi.

"Whoa, whoa – hold it everybody!" Mr. Yamada then blew his whistle; a long, shrill sound invaded the field. He then quickly rushed to the Yagamis, shouting for a first-aid kit.

"Ow, ow, owwww!"

"Oniichan – is it bad? Where are you hurt?"

"Owww – I think my knee is bl – OUCH! Darn it, my ankle!"

"Is it twisted?" Mr. Yamada asked, kneeling next to Taichi. "Let me see –"

"AAARGH!"

"Yep, it's twisted," Hikari confirmed. Someone came running with the first-aid kit and handed it to Mr. Yamada.

"Here, you do it, Hikari-chan – I'm bad at these things," confessed the older man. "Come now, don't crowd around us – give him some air! No, no – he's fine, just a twisted ankle – we might need a stretcher here!"

"This is embarrassing!" Taichi moaned. "Ow, ow, ow! Careful...!"

"Oh, stop it, it's just a small cut," Hikari said, reaching for the things necessary to clean up her brother's wound on the knee. She was aware of the villagers around them – their father and Aoi-chan had immediately made their way towards them when they saw that Taichi had fallen – but it was then that Hikari had noticed that Takeru was one of the on-lookers. In fact, he was standing really close to them.

She had not realised that it was Takeru who had handed the first-aid kit to Mr. Yamada.

"Is everything okay, Hika-chan?" came Miyako's voice, and pretty soon, she and Yamato Ishida managed to make their way towards them (their legs were still tied to one another).

"Can you stand up, bro?" came Willis' voice – he was paired with one of Mr. Hokama's sons for the hunt.

"He's gonna be fine," Hikari said. "It's just the ankle I'm worried about – but he's fine."

"Yeah, I'm fine," said a rather embarrassed Taichi. "I'm fine, people!"

"He's fine, people!" Mr. Yamada repeated. "Would everyone please take your positions at the starting line again? Thank you! Please hold on a moment, the hunt will continue soon – thank you!"

The hunters began to march away to their original positions, leaving those who were not participating to crowd around Taichi and Hikari.

"Can you stand up, oniichan?" Hikari asked once she had untied the rope that was binding their legs together. She stood up and helped Taichi as he tried to get to his feet – but apparently he had twisted his ankle quite badly, for Taichi then sunk again to the ground. Quickly, someone nearby grabbed Taichi's other arm and helped him to straighten up.

"Darn it, darn it, _darn it! _Mou, I wanna go scavenger hunting!"

"You sound like a five-year-old, niichan," Hikari chided, but she was grinning. "Can you take a few steps forward?"

Taichi tried, he really did, but Hikari could see that he was in pain each time he tried to move forward. In the end, he shook his head.

"It's no use," Taichi groaned. "I can't go on like this."

"Well," said Mr. Yamada, "we'll just have to find someone else to replace you then... Takeru-kun, my boy – thank you for the first-aid, son."

Hikari heard Takeru utter a small, "No prob," but she did not care to meet his eyes. She saw, out of the corners of her eyes, Takeru making his way back to the tent.

Hikari then looked around at the spot where her team was resting a moment ago – to her dismay, most of them had dispersed, some resting under the tent, unaware of the accident, and some had even head back home, for this hunt was the final event, after all.

"Shiho-san!" Hikari called, waving her hand at Mrs. Shiho who was under the 'Food & Drinks' tent. Perhaps she could find someone who could replace Taichi... But the older woman did not hear her calling. "Aoi-chan, could you please run to Mrs. Shiho and –?"

"We haven't got much time," Mr. Yamada interrupted, looking at the thinning crowd around him. "Takeru-kun – son! Hold up!"

Hikari had never seen Mr. Yamada move so fast before: he sprinted across the field towards Takeru (the nearest youngster he could spot), grabbed him by the shoulders ("What the _heck_–?" she heard a startled Takeru say), took the first-aid kit from the younger man's hand before shoving him towards Hikari and Taichi.

"Now, now, I know you're from Team 3, but we're rather desperate now, really," Mr. Yamada said. Shock was written all over Takeru's face as he finally understood what Mr. Yamada was saying.

"Wait – _waitwaitwaitwait – _you want me to–?"

"Yes, yes – could you please be a gentleman and pair up with Hikari-chan for the hunt?"

"I – wait – _wait, what?"_ Takeru all but sputtered as they finally reached Hikari and Taichi. Mr. Yamada did a quick job at tying his left leg to Hikari's right one, and gave them a big, big grin.

"Wait – don't you think his team might disagree to this?" Hikari quickly protested, feeling herself going red.

"Nonsense!" said a happy Mr. Yamada (somehow, Hikari had the feeling that Mr. Yamada was taking his responsibility as the Sports Day host too seriously at the moment). "Remember three years ago when one of the Inoues passed out from dehydration? Team 1 and Team 6 joined hands and everything went well!"

"But – but...!"

"Now – that's settled! Right, to the starting point, you two – come on, we're wasting time!" He then proceeded to shove Hikari and Takeru towards the starting line ("Good luck, Hika-chan! Do your best!" Taichi managed to say).

"Mr. Yamada," Hikari began again, "I _really _think this isn't a –"

"Couldn't you just –?" Takeru was saying, but then Mr. Yamada was speaking loudly to the participants now, completely ignoring their protests.

"Right, sorry for the delay, people! One your mark! Get set! Aaaaaaaaaaand –"

The sound of the whistle echoed in the sky once more.

"_GOOOO!"_

In the midst of the whole confusion, Hikari could only watch as the other hunters moved forward, determined to get a head-start over one another. She gave a frustrated groan – she wanted to win this event so bad...!

"W-well," she said, swallowing as she glanced at Takeru, "well – well, let's go, then!"

-X-

For a pair that was so awkward with each other, Hikari thought that they were amazing at synchronizing their steps.

Everyone was scattered here and there as they tried to figure out the riddle – it had only been about three minutes after Mr. Yamada had started the hunt, but it felt like an hour to her. They had not said a word to each other since they walked off the field. She was instead trying to busy herself with the riddle given – but she couldn't really think straight, because 1) the riddle _was _harder than the previous ones and 2) Takeru was leaning _a tiny wee bit_ towards her in order to read the writings on the piece of paper in her hands, and that was enough to make her brains stop functioning. Hikari could swear that she had never paid so much attention to a piece of paper before – if she could shoot lasers out of her eyes just by staring hard at something, she would have burned a hole in the paper already.

After a moment, she decided that the tension was too much. She had to put a stop to it.

"W-well, uhm," she began, trying and failing to look at his face, "what d'you think of the riddle?"

"Hm," was all he had said, but he was staring at the piece of paper, clearly in a deep thought. This was what it said:

_Empty the vessels as fast as you can,  
__North of the Darkness, in the Fairest Land._

Quite honestly, Hikari could not figure out the riddle. She was completely clueless at the moment.

Silence took over them once more as they walked on aimlessly, with Takeru's head bowed. One look was enough to tell Hikari that he was thinking hard – she remembered that look, somehow... Ah, yes...she had seen it oh so many times back when they were doing that little history project together. He had always been silent, but the way his eyes shone whenever he was in a deep thought would always make his silence seem more intense (did that even make sense?).

"Hmm," he said again after a while, bringing Hikari back to reality. He had his arms folded as he looked up at the skies, perhaps still thinking about the riddle. "Say," said he, "Yuki's Workshop – d'you know how to get there quickly?"

"Eh? Yuki's... _Yuki's Workshop?"_

He merely nodded. "Mm-hmm."

She was now curious – had he solved the first riddle? With all the embarrassment forgotten, she managed to ask, in a low voice in case any other hunters were nearby, "Why? Have you figured it out?"

Now there was a hint of a smile at the corners of his lips – had she behaved in a childish way? Hikari immediately became aware of how she had leaned in towards him conspiringly as she questioned him about the riddle. She quickly straightened up, avoiding his eyes.

"All the shops are located at the north of this village, yes?" Takeru asked in an equally quiet voice, watching Team 2's hunters carefully as they passed by.

"Yeah..."

"_Kuro _means black, right?" he went on.

"Right – _oh! _North of the Darkness – north of _this village_...I see!"

Takeru merely nodded, now smiling one of his small smiles.

"Yeah, I know how to get there quickly. But why Yuki's Workshop?" Hikari whispered as she directed their steps towards carefully towards the end of Edelweiss Lane.

"I was doing a short tour of the village the other day," he said, "and the workshop's the only place that has the work _Yuki _in the name. Yuki is snow. Snow is is white – and fair, I suppose. The workshop is the 'fairest land,' in a way."

Hikari was impressed - she would never be able to figure that out so quickly. Only then did she remember a rather long-forgotten fact: that Takeru was, after all, kind of a genius. How could she have forgotten _that?_

"And – and the vessels? What's that about?" she asked, but this time around, he didn't have the answer.

"No idea," he said, shrugging. "Perhaps we'll find out once we're there."

"Yeah...yeah, perhaps," she agreed, nodding. They were silent once more, marching forth steadily with his leg bound to hers. Before long, she began to accept the fact that she was going to spend the rest of the scavenger hunt event in this awkward manner. "_Oh dear Lord, please have mercy on me," _she found herself thinking over and over again. _"Please let this be over soon..."_

Takeru, meanwhile, seemed to be doing just fine – he had managed to hold his composure better than Hikari, and he seemed content with the silence between them at the moment.

Hikari inhaled deeply before sighing, bowing her head as she did so. One moment, everything was going smoothly, and then Taichi had to trip and twist his ankles – and now, she was in the most uncomfortable, most awkward situation ever... To be stuck with Takeru like this...

"Ano sa," Takeru suddenly began, "do you like Kurokuro?"

She looked up at him. "Eh?"

Takeru didn't meet her eyes – he was busy looking at the green trees that lined the street. His blue eyes seemed really, really calm...

"It's peaceful here, that's all," he said. "Very different from Tokyo."

_Ah, he's trying to come up with something to talk about..._

Hikari nodded and smiled as she, too, began to look at the trees. "Yeah, it's pretty awesome here," she agreed. "But it rains a lot."

"Hm," he simply said, stretching his long arms above his head before taking a deep breath. "It's a nice place, nonetheless."

Then there was a pause – should she start another topic now? He was kind enough to invite her to talk, so now she must return the favour, somehow...

"_So why not ask him about France?"_ asked a small voice in her head. She once more grew tense at this thought – did she have enough courage to bring up such a delicate topic? The topic that she had been trying to forget all these years...?

No, no. She wasn't ready for that...not yet.

"Err – how come – how come Hiroki-kun's with you?" Hikari asked slowly. "Is he here visiting?"

"_Why would a visiting cousin enrol in school, though?_" the small voice inquired. Hikari immediately regretted asking him that question afterwards – his calm expression disappeared, and for a fleeting moment, something flashed across his face...what was it?

Was it sadness? Sorrow?

"Ah...no, he's not here visiting," Takeru said, "we, uh – we lost Aunt Yukiko three years ago in a plane crash."

"Oh... I – I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."

He shook his head, closing his eyes. "Nah. S'okay."

"_Way to go, Hikari," _said the small voice, _"you just made the atmosphere worse – congratulations."_

"She was in a flight from France to Japan," Takeru went on, "with Obachan."

Hikari's heart skipped a beat. The image of Takeru's grandmother crossed her mind at that moment – she could see the basketball court of her old high school...she could _feel _the stinging pain on her cheek – the embarrassment... She remembered how angry Takeru was back then when his grandmother had slapped Hikari across the face in front of the whole school.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the memories. But Takeru went on, adding a final small detail:

"There were no survivors."

It took her quite a while to process this little detail. When she managed to do that, she finally understood something.

The old woman was dead. Gone. Takeru's grandmother, the one who had insisted upon the engagement, had died.

Which means...

"Ah," Takeru said, suddenly stopping. "This is it, right?"

Hikari looked up to see that they had arrived at Yuki's Workshop. She had unconsciously led them to their destination. She quickly nodded. "Y-yeah – this is it."

-X-

"Yo."

"_Ah, Taichi-san. How's the Sports Day going?"_

"Meh, it went well – but I just _had _to sprain my ankle before the scavenger hunt began. Darn it!"

"_I'm sorry to hear that... Well, have you met Yamato? What d'you think?"_

"I think he might have a point. The kid acts the same way Hikari-chan does. You know. Spacing out every now and then and stuff."

"_Did the two of you have a good talk, though? About your younger siblings?"_

"Yeah, yeah, we did. I still kinda disagree with this whole thing, Koushiro... My sister's been suffering for five years, for heaven's sake! But I'm giving it a chance. Let's just see what happens, eh?"

"_Yes, I guess so. Is Yamato-san around?"_

"No – he went scavenger-hunting...and I'm just here waiting for them to return. This sucks!"

"_Take it easy, Taichi-san. Listen, I gotta go. Keep me posted?"_

"Yeah, yeah..."

"_Get well soon. Bye then."_

"Bye."

-X-

"Welcome to my humble workshop!" said a very happy-looking Mr. Yuki as he beckoned the two of them to enter. "You're the first to arrive – how did you figure out the riddle, eh, Hikari-chan? And who's this? I've never – ah! You must be one of the Ishida boys, eh? How d'you like this place? It's charming isn't it? Listen, if your car breaks down or anything –"

"Mr. Yuki," Hikari interrupted politely, "we're kinda in a hurry –"

"Ah! Yes! Of course!" The mechanic then produced two mineral water bottles. "To get the next riddle, you just have to finish these."

"Empty the vessels as fast as you can," Hikari heard Takeru mumble. "Right..."

"You're smart enough to guess the riddle. Now, have a drink – and do it quick! Sooner or later the others will catch up."

He handed them two water bottles, still grinning. Takeru said thanks and began to drink.

"What happens if the other hunters just buy a bottle of water at Mr. Hokama's and drink it up?" Hikari asked as she took a short break from the drinking task. Takeru was already half-way done. "Can they still proceed?"

"Nope. Only I have the next riddle," said the mechanic with a wink.

"Come on, drink up," Takeru urged her in a calm voice as he glanced out the workshop. Hikari could see none of the other hunters as she went on drinking, but then she saw a glimpse of Miyako. "Oh, shoot – come on, quickly, quickly!" Takeru said. "My brother will see me soon and-"

He didn't finish his sentence: Yamato Ishida was approaching the workshop now, grinning, followed closely by Miyako. Hikari drank on.

"I told you we should've kept an eye of Takeru!" said Yamato to Miyako. "He's smart, this one."

"Congratulations, you two," said Mechanic Yuki to the newcomers. "Here, drink up. Hurry!"

With one final gulp, Hikari wiped her mouth, grinning triumphantly at Miyako. "Done! C'mon, let's go!" She took the empty water bottle with her as proof that they had passed this checkpoint.

"Here's your next riddle – good luck!" said the mechanic, handing her a roll of paper. Hikari saw Takeru stuck out his tongue at his brother (who flipped the middle finger in return) before the two of them headed out of the workshop.

"What does it say?" Takeru asked as they tried to walk as fast as their bounded legs would allow them.

"It says – it says:

_In the black night sky do they shine,  
__Harvest these and you'll be fine._

"What the heck? Any ideas?"

Takeru was frowning slightly now, thinking hard, perhaps, at this clue. Before Hikari could suggest anything, he quickly said, "I've got it – but let's get out of here first. My brother could simply tail us to the next checkpoint. C'mon!"

"Where are we going, exactly?" Hikari asked, trying her best to keep up with his pace.

"Where's the nearest starfruit tree?"

"Star – what the...? So we're looking for stars? _Starfruits?"_ she asked, and he merely nodded.

"Well, let me see –" Hikari wrecked her brain for the correct location, feeling rather amazed at the speed at which Takeru had managed to figure out the riddle. She then found herself giving instructions to Takeru to take the shortcut to the woodcutter's house.

"That's where the nearest tree is?"

"I think it's the _only_ starfruit tree around."

"Okay. Okay, let's go," Takeru said, glancing back at the workshop. Miyako and Yamato had not emerged from the workshop, so the two of them quickened their pace.

-X-

Their paced had slowed down once more, and silence was with them again. It was like a game, really – he had asked her about Kurokuro, she had asked him about Hiroki-kun in return, and then he had presented her with a truth that was kind of difficult for her to deal with at the moment. Questions upon questions now popped into her head – was he still engaged to Catherine Leroy? Had he been in France all this while...?

Hikari sighed silently as they kept on walking. Mr. Sawamoto's house was on top of a small hill – the most secluded area in the whole of Kurokuro – so it would take them a while to get there...

Suddenly, Takeru's finger brushed against hers – his long fingers had touched her arm for the briefest moment, and then it was gone. It wasn't the first time that had happened, with them having to stand quite close to each other due to their tied legs, but it made her blush all the same. She withdrew her hand and clasped them tightly in front of her.

It was not a good time to sneak a glance at him, but she did so anyway. She lifted her eyes carefully to study his profile: Takeru was still as calm as he was before...and this was the first time that she actually got to stare at him up-close. His features were as she had remembered them – his nose, his mouth...his eyes... Hikari bowed her head, finally looking away.

She remembered how once upon a time, she would not have felt so uncomfortable with Takeru's silence – how she had understood that this was the kind of person Takeru was. Once upon a time, she could understand what his silence meant; she could even make him talk about his troubles... But now, his silence was a torture, a strain.

"_Oh, come on. Don't make me laugh," _said the small voice in her head. _"That was _five years ago, _dear. You've been trying to forget him all this while, remember? Why should you be bothered by his silence now? Who is he to you, anyway?"_

Who was she to _him_ now?

"_Why don't you find out?"_

Hikari cleared her throat, testing the waters before she went on. She looked sideways at Takeru, who had turned his attention to her.

"Uhm... Mr. Sawamoto's house is just up that hill," she said, pointing. He followed her pointing finger and nodded, showing that he understood. "He's a rather odd person..."

Here, she managed to get another glimpse at that smile of his. "Yeah, I've been told. Predicts the weather and stuff, huh?"

She grinned. "Yeah – it's pretty accurate, really, his predictions."

"Hm."

She took a deep breath before continuing: "So..."

"So..."

She turned to look at him. He was smiling a little as he observed her. It was as if he had wanted her to go on – it was as if he, too, was uncomfortable with the silence between them. So Hikari pressed on.

"So...what d'you think of the villagers here?"

He seemed content with this new topic, so he pursued it. "They're friendly. It's rare to find people like that in the city...so we're very thankful."

Hikari contemplated something for a while, and then, without thinking much, she asked: "...Are people friendly to you back in France?"

Oh, this question had caught him off guard, all right. Takeru had quickly turned to look at her, and his gaze lingered on her for a moment or two. It took every ounce of her courage to return his gaze – after a while, his blue orbs started to become a tad bit overwhelming for her to handle, but she refused to look away.

In the end, it was he who broke the eye contact. Looking away at the trees, he said, "They weren't as friendly."

Hikari nodded silently, and they pressed on quietly for a moment.

"...How – how _was _France?" she had afterwards asked in a small voice, twisting her fingers together and keeping her eyes glued to the ground. She had hated herself for sounding so meek when she asked the question – couldn't she have just make it sound casual and cool? Darn it, Hikari...!

"All right, I suppose," came the reply.

"Ah. I see."

Suddenly things had become a thousand times more awkward between them – she wouldn't look at him, and he wouldn't look at her. So she had finally asked him The Question, and he had replied rather calmly. He _had _been in France all this while, then... Did he spend his time with – with Catherine? Had the two of them become close friends?

Had they become a 'proper' engaged couple...?

They marched on silently, now hiking the little hill towards Mr. Sawamoto's house. Before long, the wood-cutter's house came into view.

"Well, well well!" came a thunderous voice, and Hikari looked up. Beneath the starfruit tree was Mr. Sawamoto, his arms spread open as if welcoming the two of them. "Well done. You are the first ones to arrive."

"Thank you," Hikari managed to say as they moved towards the wood-cutter.

"The riddle, please?" Mr. Sawamoto said, stretching a hand towards them. Hikari quickly pulled out the riddle they had received from Mr. Yuki, and the wood-cutter began to examine it before handing it back to her. "Thank you – that is indeed the correct riddle. Now..." He gestured at his starfruit tree. "Go on ahead. Pluck a star, then you may be on your way."

Takeru and Hikari both thanked the man before making their way to the tree. Takeru, being the taller of the two, reached out a hand to touch one of the fruits.

"Is this one okay?" he had asked. Hikari looked: well, the fruit seemed all right.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure." And thus, he plucked the yellow starfruit from the tree. They went back to Mr. Sawamoto.

"Here is the next riddle," he said, handing Takeru a roll of paper. "Remember – while victory is important, teamwork is even more so. Therefore it is also important that you communicate well with each other." Here, the wood-cutter paused, and fixed a steady gaze at Takeru, and then at Hikari. "Hold nothing back. Trust one another. Only then shall you be able to proceed smoothly."

They were silent for a moment or two.

"Err – t-thank you, Mr. Sawamoto, sir," Hikari said, bowing a deep bow. Takeru followed suit. "Thank you."

The wood-cutter bowed back before gesturing them to the path that led away from his little house. "Good luck, then, to the both of you."

-X-

"_Sing me a song, for this is the place,  
__Now strike me a Dm7, and I'll quicken your pace."_

Once he had read the riddle aloud, Takeru looked up to the sky. "This should be simple enough."

"Yeah – it's the bar, I think. They have a karaoke set. That's gotta be the only place you can sing and – and strike this Dm7 thingy... It's a chord, right? Dm7?"

Takeru had smiled a big smile when Hikari had said, _"this Dm7 thingy."_ She felt herself going red. "D minor seven – yes, it's a chord. Where exactly is the bar, though?"

"At the other end of the village. It's quite a long walk from here to there, so..."

There was a short pause where he seemed to be thinking of something. "Are you tired?"

Truthfully, her legs had begun to ache a while ago, but she did not want to stop for a rest – other hunters might catch up with them if they did stop, so she shook her head. "No, no – let's just go on with this."

Hikari had made the correct decision to carry on with the hunt, because twenty minutes later, they came face-to-face with Willis and his hunting partner, Susumu Hokama. Willis was talking in an animated way before he realised that Hikari and Takeru were approaching him. His facial expressions had quickly changed when he saw them, but he raised an arm and waved at her all the same.

"Hey, Hikari-chan!"

She grinned and waved back. "Hello, Willis!" She then saw Willis' eyes moved to look at Takeru, so she did the same thing. Takeru was in his Calm Mode, and was meeting Willis' gaze steadily with an unfathomable expression on his face. The distance between the four of them began to decrease as they walked towards each other, and finally, they were face to face with one another.

"All right there?" Willis asked, grinning at her.

"Fine, thanks," she replied, feeling rather uncomfortable yet glad with this small meeting of theirs – uncomfortable because Takeru was there and was watching everything in a very calm manner; glad because Willis had always managed to make her feel happy inside whenever she saw him. "Doing okay with your riddles?"

"We're right behind you, so watch out," Willis said as he stared at Takeru. The last part of the sentence sounded more like a threat to Takeru than anything else, but Hikari's hunting partner had merely arched his eyebrows as he heard it.

"Better get a move on if you wanna catch up, then," Takeru said calmly. The atmosphere was beginning to turn ugly...

"Err – see you later then, Willis – Susumu," Hikari quickly interrupted, moving forward so that Takeru had to follow her as well – their legs were tied to one other's, after all.

"Yeah. See you," Willis muttered before walking away with his hunting partner. Things were dead quiet between Hikari and Takeru afterwards, but when she looked at him, she actually saw him smiling.

"What? What's so funny?" she asked. Takeru's smile widened; he gave a very small laughter before looking away.

"Hm? No, nothing's funny. Why?"

"You're _laughing. _That's why."

Takeru merely pulled an 'I-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about' face, and did not bother to provide her with a reply. Now she felt as if she had to defend Willis: he was her friend, after all. She felt as if Takeru was silently jeering at Willis' words – did he find the threat childish?

"Willis is just a tad bit competitive, that's all," Hikari said, trying to sound casual.

"Oh, I can see that," he said in return, but the way he had said it had implied that he did not want to pursue this topic anymore.

"He's a great friend," Hikari went on. She just wanted to put that out there – she wanted Takeru to know that Willis had been really kind to her. _"Or are you just trying to make him jealous?" _the small voice in her head commented. Well, why should Takeru be jealous of Willis? Who was he to judge Willis, anyway?

Takeru had given no reply to her last comment, but had instead stopped in his tracks. "This is the bar, right?"

Sure enough, they had arrived at the bar. "Yeah," she said, feeling oddly annoyed now, "this is it."

-X-

"Oh, I've been waiting forever for you scavenger hunters to show up!" said the bartender, Mr. Takama. "What took you so long?"

"We're from Mr. Sawamoto's hut," Hikari replied, "and that's quite far away from this bar, don't you think?"

"Oh yes, very," said the bartender, nodding. "Now then, perhaps you would like something to drink first? You're almost done with the hunt, anyway."

"Plain water, please," Takeru said. Mr. Takama nodded and turned his attention to Hikari.

"Same, please."

Mr. Takama did a quick job at fetching their drinks, and then he began to explain what they needed to do to proceed with the hunt while they drank the icy cold water. "Just sing this song for me, would you?" he said, approaching the karaoke set and playing the song.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Hikari said, giggling as she heard the oh-so-familiar opening theme of _Doraemon_.

"Nope, I'm dead serious, Hika-chan," said Mr. Takama, also grinning. "If you want that final riddle, you guys have to sing me this song!"

"And the Dm7 chord?" Takeru inquired.

"That's after you sing this whole song."

Hikari saw Takeru shaking his head, but he was smiling also. "Very well then."

The two of them approached the karaoke set, with Mr. Takama standing close by. "Ready?" the bartender asked.

"Yeah, I guess!"

"And...go!"

Hikari felt silly, but she started to sing along to the song all the same:

_Konna koto ii na__  
__Dekitara ii na__  
__Anna yume konna yume ippai aru kedo_

_Minna minna minna__  
__Kanaete kureru__  
__Fushigina POKKE de kanaete kureru__  
__Sora wo jiyuu ni tobitai na_

_(hai! takekoputaa!)_

_AN AN AN__  
__Tottemo daisuki__  
__DORAE ~ MON~_

Mr. Takama was shaking with laughter as the two of them finished the song. "Gosh, you guys sure do look silly! Ha ha!"

"Very funny, Takama-san," said Hikari. "Now can we just please get on with the chord?"

"Oh – oh yes, certainly. This way!" The bartender then led them to the little stage where people usually perform songs. There was a drum set, several microphone stands, and an electric keyboard. "D'you know what's the Dm7 chord, Hikari-chan?"

She shook her head and replied the negative, so Mr. Takama turned his attention to Takeru instead.

"And you, Will – holy crap...!" The bartender stood back and gave Takeru a once-over. "I thought you were Willis!"

"Well, I'm not," Takeru had simply said. He was smiling as he said this.

"Then – then who the heck are you?"

"Ishida Takeru," said he, bowing politely. Mr. Takama did the same as he introduced himself.

"Ah...! You're the one who just moved in, huh? Well, I'll be damned! I really thought you were Willis – thought something was odd, though. You're taller! Ha ha! Well then – do _you _know the Dm7 chord, Takeru-kun?"

Silently, Takeru moved forth towards the keyboard, then his long fingers were on the keys and he proceeded to strike a bunch of keys together. The musical sound filled the empty bar.

"Very good," said Mr. Takama, nodding as he fished out a roll of paper from his pocket. "Here you go, then! And take this as well, as your proof."

Takeru took the roll of paper and a small piece of card that had a Doraemon sticker on it. The said thanks, and then the two of them headed out of the bar.

"Well, what does it say?" Hikari asked once they were outside. Takeru carefully unrolled the paper, and read out:

"_Up is down and down is up,  
__Soon is victory, don't give up."_

"...Hmmmmm."

"Tricky," Takeru commented silently, but he was already in his Thinking Mode. They walked on aimlessly as they tried to figure out the last riddle.

"There are no hints of a location or anything in this one," Hikari said after a while. "What d'you suppose it means?"

Takeru thought for a while, and then, stopping he said, "You've told him, haven't you?"

"Uh. Uh, what?"

"Willis, I mean," he carried on, now rereading the riddle as if trying to appear nonchalant. "You've told him?"

"About what?" Hikari asked, her frown deepening.

"No – never mind, forget it," he said, dismissing the matter quickly. "Can I have the rest of the previous riddles, please?"

"No, you can't," she replied firmly, "not until you've explained yourself. Have I told Willis about what?"

Takeru now looked as if he'd wished he hadn't spoken up in the first place. Looking around him, he said, "C'mon, we don't have time – the others might catch up with us. Gimme the riddles—"

"You mean, have I told Willis about – about what happened five years ago, don't you?" Hikari cut across him, her temper suddenly rising. "Well – _well, _so what if I have? What's it to you?"

His silence was driving her mad now – what was the point in asking a question if you weren't going to listen to the answer? And why was he suddenly so interested in what she had told Willis? The way he had phrased his question – _you've told him, haven't you? – _sounded as if he was trying to accuse Hikari of something. It was as if he did not approve of Hikari's friendship with Willis. It was as if he did not approve of her telling Willis about what had happened five years ago.

"Can I just please have the riddles, Hikari?" he said, calmly still, now holding out a hand.

"No – no you can't!" she said, her voice trembling, the volume of her voice rising. He sighed in a resigned manner, his jaw clenched. "So what if I've told Willis about us, huh? He was – he has been kind to me!"

"Well, it's good to know, then," came his cold reply.

"He has!" Hikari insisted, now blinking back the stupid tears that were threatening to fall. "I wouldn't have been – it was _you—!_ None of this – _none of it – _would've happened if you hadn't just suddenly decided to run off to France!"

"I didn't run off," Takeru said firmly. "You didn't give me the chance to explain back then—"

Here, she gave a fake laughter. "Explain? Explain _what?_ That you were getting married to dear Miss Leroy and that I was gonna be nothing but that stupid girl who thought she had a chance?"

"Hikari, would you just _please _listen—?"

"How _is _she, anyway?" Hikari curt across him loudly. "How is _dear_ Catherine?"

"If you _really_ wanna know, she's doing great," Takeru snapped. "Thank you for asking!"

"Well, the pleasure's all mine!" she hissed. Deciding that she had had enough, Hikari turned away, and forgetting that their legs were still bound together, she tried to walk off – she managed to lose her balance, and then she was falling to the ground, pulling Takeru along with her.

She fell hard on her knees with a loud, "Ouch!", but Takeru had managed to fall into a kneeling position next to her.

"Are you all right?" Takeru asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"_Don't touch me!"_

"Hikari, you're bleeding. Let me see –"

It was true: one of her knees was stinging with pain, and her palms were bleeding a little. She wiped away the tears that had started to fall, and shrugged away his hand. "Just leave me alone," she mumbled, now trying to untie the knot that was binding their legs together. But her hands were trembling so much that it was impossible to finish the task. Takeru had fallen silent and was looking around him.

"Come on," he said, standing up, "let's go to the kindergarten. It's close by, right?"

Hikari kept her hands busy with the knot. "Leave me alone," she repeated.

"You," Takeru said, grabbing one of her arms and pulling her up to a standing position, "are hurt – and we're heading to the kindergarten, _now."_

He then proceeded to drag her along towards the kindergarten despite her protests, and before she knew it, they were standing in front of _Mrs. Kim's Sunshine Kindergarten._

-X-

"Are you all right, Hikari-chan?"

Mrs. Kim's voice managed to pull her back to reality. The older woman had been kind enough to take a look at her wounds, and she had made them both some tea. Hikari was sitting in Mrs. Kim's office at the moment, sipping her tea silently. Takeru had remained outside in the hallway – she didn't know if he was still there or if he had gone off.

"I'm fine," Hikari mumbled.

"I know you and your brother are good at this scavenger hunt event," said Mrs. Kim as she settled down next to Hikari, "but you don't see happy right now. You guys are the first to reach this final checkpoint – aren't you glad?"

"What checkpoint?" Hikari asked stupidly, looking at the kindergarten teacher with a slight frown.

"Well – this kindergarten is the final checkpoint!" said Mrs. Kim, laughing a little. "How did you figure it out?"

"I – I didn't," Hikari admitted. "We were close by and – and, well, I've tripped, and this is the closest place we thought of to get help from..."

Mrs. Kim nodded silently, observing Hikari as she did so. She then glanced outside her office. "You didn't pair up with your brother this year?"

"Oniichan managed to trip, too," Hikari said. Mrs. Kim chuckled at this. "We're incredibly clumsy this year."

"So you paired up with Takeru-kun instead, eh?"

"It was Mr. Yamada's idea."

"Ah, I see..."

Right then, Takeru's tall figure appeared at the door. He knocked twice to get Mrs. Kim's attention.

"Oh, hello. Would you like some more tea, Takeru-kun?"

The blonde politely refused. "Uh – I was wondering...if we'd be disqualified for untying the rope. I mean... Mr. Yamada isn't here to judge, so..."

"Ah, no, no, it's all right to untie the ropes once you've reached the final checkpoint," said Mrs. Kim, smiling. "So, _you _knew this is the final checkpoint, right, Takeru-kun?"

Takeru merely nodded, and Hikari's confusion grew – hadn't Takeru brought her here because this was the closest place to get help?

"Well, then – I'm just...gonna go and wait outside," Takeru said before bowing and leaving the office.

"Wait a minute," Hikari said once she was sure Takeru had gone off and was out of earshot, "the last riddle didn't say anything about a location – how is this the last checkpoint again?"

"Do you have the riddles with you right now, Hikari-chan?" Mrs. Kim asked, smiling. Hikari quickly took out all the pieces of paper, and Mrs. Kim began to arrange them on the table. "Look closely. Can you see the word _sunshine _anywhere?" _Sunshine Kindergarten_ was the name of the school.

Hikari leaned closer to the table, and frowned at the riddles:

_Empty the vessels as fast as you can,  
__North of the Darkness, in the Fairest Land._

_In the black night sky do they shine,  
__Harvest these and you'll be fine._

_Sing me a song, for this is the place,  
__Now strike me a Dm7, and I'll quicken your pace._

_Up is down and down is up,  
__Soon is victory, don't give up._

"Well...no, not really," she confessed. "Where is it?"

"Here's a hint – read the final riddle."

_Up is down and down is up,  
__Soon is victory, don't give up._

"Sorry – still nothing," Hikari admitted, feeling rather foolish now.

"It's okay," said Mrs. Kim, "it _is _very tricky – I'm surprised Takeru-kun managed to figure this out so quickly." She then proceeded to underline the first letters of each line.

_E__mpty the vessels as fast as you can,  
__N__orth of the Darkness, in the Fairest Land._

_I__n the black night sky do they shine,  
__H__arvest these and you'll be fine._

_S__ing me a song, for this is the place,  
__N__ow strike me a Dm7, and I'll quicken your pace._

_U__p is down and down is up,  
__S__oon is victory, don't give up._

"Now read the final riddle again, with these letters in mind. Can you see it now?"

"Up is down and down is up," Hikari mumbled, thinking quickly. "Up is down...?" She tried to read the riddles in the opposite way – from the bottom – and then she finally saw it.

_S__oon_

_U__p_

_N__ow_

_S__ing_

_H__arvest_

_I__n_

_N__orth_

_E__mpty_

_S – U – N – S – H – I – N – E_

Despite her earlier outburst of emotions, she managed to crack a smile. "That is pretty neat," she admitted. "Who came up with this?"

"I have no idea," said Mrs. Kim, "but it's fantastic, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she said, grinning. Before she knew it, she was glancing out the office door, trying to catch a glimpse of Takeru. "Yeah. It's fantastic."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry if my riddles sucked. I tried my best. (OTL)

Also, sorry if some parts of this chapter seemed rush – I just haven't been writing a long time, and I had to finish this now while I have the time. I've got two quizzes next week – chemistry and maths – and I can guarantee you that I won't be able to finish the chapter had I left it until next week.

So, what do you think? :D Koushiro's been introduced to the story, yeay!


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **(Thank you to those of you who did point a gun at my head, I appreciate it.)

The sweetest line in Takeru's character song, _Focus,_is perhaps this:

"The truth is, I've got a lot to say to you, but each time I try, it won't come out right."

HOW IS TAKARI NOT CANNON? Adgyasrvfehjas. Jhfeuirnfjk. Whdijge, thank you.

* * *

8. All Together Now

It seemed as if the both of them had become rather used to be in each other's company – however uncomfortable that was to them – because at the moment, Hikari and Takeru were once again sitting together in an empty classroom at Mrs. Kim's kindergarten. She was by the window, staring out of it, and he was by the blackboard, at the other end of the classroom, examining the bookshelves there. Mrs. Kim had gone off to make some more tea and fetch some more biscuits, and had insisted that Hikari stay in the classroom because she was injured, and had insisted that Takeru 'look after' Hikari.

Hours seemed to have gone by.

Mrs. Kim had explained that her kindergarten was the last checkpoint for the scavenger hunt; therefore all twelve hunters would have to gather there before they could march off to the fields again for the closing ceremony. When Hikari heard this, she had a hunch that the other hunters would not arrive at the last checkpoint for some time (because really, the final riddle was _damn__tricky_), and she was beginning to think that she was right. It had been one hour and twenty minutes since their arrival there, and no one else had knocked on the kindergarten door.

Hikari sighed deeply and glanced sideways at Takeru. He had his back facing her, and he was looking at the drawings taped to the wall. They had not said much to each other. Mrs. Kim had been pretty occupied, asking Takeru about his family and what he thought of Kurokuro so far – the usual inquiries. Takeru had, in return, apologized for the way Hiroki-kun had behaved the other day, and this had led to the many short conversations between Hikari and him.

"I'm sure Aoi-chan has forgiven Hiroki-kun," Mrs. Kim had said, smiling. "She's one very friendly girl, isn't she, Hikari-chan?"

"Yeah," she had agreed, nodding. "She's pretty much forgotten the whole thing – you don't have to worry."

"Right," he had replied, "that's good to know."

And that was when Mrs. Kim had excused herself to the kitchen at the back of the building. They had said nothing to each other since.

Hikari snapped out of her thoughts when she registered that Takeru had moved across the room: he calmly walked towards her and sat down on the chair next to Hikari's. There was a small table between them, on which they had both rested their arms. Hikari watched his chest rise and fall as he sighed. She wasn't even bothered to feel uncomfortable or anything right now – she was tired, both physically and mentally. Whatever the heck had convinced her that she could survive being in the same village as Takeru, she didn't know.

"Sorry."

This came out so suddenly and so randomly, it made her turn her head slightly to the side and look at him.

"For what I said earlier," he explained, his eyes staring at the floor. "I've no doubt that Willis is a good friend."

"Hmm," Hikari managed to say as she tore her eyes away from his profile. She contemplated on whether or not she should pursue this topic of conversation, but after much consideration (during which they both had remained silent), she decided against it. Why bother, anyway? She would most probably end up in tears – again – and where's the progress in _that?_ So in the end, she found herself turning her head to the side to look at him again as she muttered, "How on earth did you figure out the last riddle?"

Hikari watched as Takeru shrugged his shoulders and looked around the room as he thought of what to say. "Dunno. Read the last riddle and I just…saw the answer, I guess."

Hikari let out a huff and found herself smiling. "Right. You have six brains."

He sort of smiled at this. She wondered if he remembered when she had said these words to him before – and then she wondered why she was thinking of this. The last time she had accused him of owning six brains was five or six years ago, in a public library, when they were doing some research for their history project – so why on earth would he remember it?

"Listen, Hikari," Takeru said, sitting up straighter. "What you said earlier, about me running off to–"

Hikari stood up so fast, she knocked her chair against the table behind her. "I don't really wanna talk about this right now." She really didn't.

"No, _listen.__" _His grip on her wrist was as firm as his tone of voice. He pulled her back when she tried to walk away, and held her firmly by the shoulders in front of him. "Listen to me, I need to say this."

"You don't have to—"

He once more held her in place when she tried to turn away. He had his head bowed now, as if he was trying his best not to yell out his next words. "I need to say this," Takeru said again, his intense gaze now meeting her eyes. "Please?"

Hikari looked away, but didn't try to walk away this time. Perhaps this was enough to convince Takeru that she was willing to listen, so he let go of her shoulders. They just stood there for a moment or two in silence, where it looked as if Takeru was putting his words together carefully in his head before saying them. When he did speak, Hikari could somehow tell that he _had_been thinking of this confrontation for years, because his words came out smoothly (as if he had practiced saying them a lot).

"I'm sorry I left, I truly am. I know that I can never apologise enough to you for leaving, but – but that's all I _can _do." Here, he paused, giving her the chance to speak up. When she simply folded her arms and looked at him, he went on. "Look…you're not the only one affected by this whole thing. I'm not trying to make excuses – but I _know _you've been upset and believe me, I was too. I'm probably the only one who understands how you feel."

She huffed at this. She wanted to say that no, he was not the only one who understood her feelings, because Willis knew and Willis understood, too. But then she realised that this was probably a lie. Willis did _not _understand.

"Everything happened so quickly, I lost you just like that. They said Catherine needed some treatment in France and…"

Hikari squeezed her eyes shut as she heard Catherine's name.

"And suddenly I found myself spending two years in a foreign country with a grandmother whom I hated, without you, without anyone by my side."

Hikari bit her lip and – this was indeed something she didn't know about. So he had only been in France for two years? And why hadn't his mother been with him during those two years? Hikari had always convinced herself that it was no use if she kept thinking of him, because surely his mother and grandmother would have brainwashed Takeru into forgetting her while he was there in France – but now that he had revealed this little information that he had been alone all this while in France, perhaps no such brainwashing session had taken place. Perhaps he, too, had had a difficult time trying and failing to forget her – she had never thought of this before (and she wondered _why_), but perhaps he, too, had been suffering a lot during these past five years.

When he spoke again, there was a note of urgency in his voice, as if he desperately needed her to understand. "I looked for you when I got back, I really did – but it's like you've vanished—"

"_Great,__"_ she thought, _"__because __that __was __what __I __was __trying __to __do.__"_

"—and then for _three __years,_there's nothing and – and then suddenly you're here."

Takeru stopped talking, and Hikari thought that it was merely one of those pauses, but that seemed to be it. He seemed to not know what to say now.

"Why don't you say something?" he asked after a while, anxious for her response. Well, what was there to say? Hikari had now managed to pretty much sketch out what had really happened: Catherine needed a treatment in France; Takeru's grandmother had insisted that he come along, and he had only stayed there for two years.

Why two years, though?

"_We lost Aunt Yukiko three years ago in a plane crash. She was in a flight from France to Japan with Obachan."_

Takeru's words during their scavenger hunt slowly came back to her, and she finally saw the whole picture.

"_There were no survivors."_

He had broken off his engagement with Catherine upon his grandmother's death and had come back looking for Hikari.

Takeru hadn't said this, it was merely her guess, but that _had_to be it – she was sure, _so__sure__now_—

"Where's Catherine now?" she found herself saying. Takeru's frown deepened.

"Why does it matt— she's in France, why?"

Hikari opened her mouth and the words, "Are you still engaged to her?" began to form on her lips, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him. "Well," she said, and he arched his eyebrows more as if to say, 'Go on.' "Well, I—"

"_Excuse __us! _Hello? Hellooooo~?"

"Damn, those are Takeru's shoes, they're already here! Come on, Miyako-san!"

"Ah, Miyako-chan! And this must be…?"

"Ishida Yamato – nice to meet you."

"Hiroki-kun's other cousin, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mrs. Kim. You two made it, congratulations! Sorry, I was in the kitchen preparing some tea. Do come in! May I see all your riddles, please?"

"So this _is _the last checkpoint, right? It says _sunshine _when put together and read from the bottom up."

"Very well done – yes, this is the last checkpoint. Come in, come in!"

Hikari and Takeru were looking at each other now as if both had something pressing to say, but they didn't get the chance to do so when Mrs. Kim entered the classroom, Miyako and Ishida Yamato following her closely.

"The runner-ups," Mrs. Kim said, gesturing at the Miyako and Yamato: she was grinning triumphantly as she took a little bow and he was smiling, obviously pleased at being the second pair to reach the last checkpoint.

"What's this, Takeru? Did you just lead the enemy team to victory?" mocked Yamato, and Hikari saw Takeru rolling his eyes.

"How did _you _get here?" Takeru shot back.

"Hey, you're not the only smart guy around, you know, Miyako here is pretty good herself."

Miyako grinned and held up a peace sign with her fingers. "The last riddle _was_tough, though. And I actually managed to forget what the kindergarten is called, so when we figured out that the letters spell 'sunshine' we didn't really know where to go. But then I remembered…"

Hikari sighed as Miyako went on talking, oblivious to what they had just interrupted. She was sure that Takeru had much more to say, and dammit, _she _still had a lot to ask – and she had just managed to gather up enough courage to ask him about Catherine… She snuck a glance at Takeru, and sure enough, he, too, looked distressed: he was clenching his jaw and was glaring at the foot of a stool nearby as he patiently listened to whatever it was that Miyako and Yamato had to say. Quite honestly, Hikari didn't know when she and Takeru were going to get the chance to talk to one another again – she was pretty sure she wouldn't have the courage to call him and say, "Hey listen, let's continue our little discussion the other day," because she really didn't think she was ready to do that just yet, and she was also pretty sure that _he _wouldn't know how to approach her properly after the Sports Day event ended. There was a huge gap between them now – five years of not talking to or seeing each other, five years of trying and perhaps failing to forget one another, five long years of guessing at how the other was coping with life – and closing that gap would surely require time and effort from both sides.

"…but I helped with the chord."

"Yeah, that you did, Matt! How awesome is that, eh, Hikari-chan? My favourite singer, helping me with something as small as the annual scavenger hunt!"

"Yes, that's…that's great," Hikari mumbled as Yamato gave Miyako a high-five. At least those two had become friends...

"Remember the look on Willis' face when we overtook him and Susumu? HAH!"

"He _did _look baffled."

"Well then – you kids go on and chat and stuff, I'm going to go and make some more tea," said Mrs. Kim, and right after she left, Takeru, who had sat down earlier, quickly sprang to his feet.

"A word, please, Hikari," he said, avoiding everyone's eyes as he took her by the hand.

"_Eh?_ Wha—" She was sure that her face was red by now – Takeru had had a firm grip on her hand, and her head seemed unable to process this little action of his.

"Excuse us," he calmly said, bowing a little to his brother and Miyako before tugging Hikari by the hand. Both Miyako and Yamato stared at them in confused, and the former mouthed, "What's going on?" to Hikari, who mouthed back, "No idea!" She saw Miyako standing up and opening her mouth to say something, but then Yamato interrupted,

"Let them be – it's probably something about...well...something."

Hikari didn't catch what Miyako said after that, because Takeru had led her to the front of the kindergarten and he had proceeded to put on his shoes.

"Uh – where are we going?" she asked as she hastily tried to put her shoes on. He was still holding her hand.

"Outside," Takeru replied shortly. His voice was calm and he had schooled his expression into something unfathomable, so Hikari couldn't really tell what was going on in his head. He patiently waited as Hikari put her shoes on, and then he calmly proceeded to tug her outside and led the way to the playground at the side of the building. Only then did he let go of her hand. He walked several paces ahead before turning around and leaning against the wall, his blue eyes fixed on her brown ones. Hikari was quite clueless as to what she was supposed to do or say – and she was still pretty flustered by the whole thing – so she merely tried her best to stare back.

"So. You were saying?" he finally asked.

"E-eh?" Hikari nervously shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

"About Catherine. You were saying?"

"Are you still engaged to her? Have you two gotten close to each other during the past five years when I wasn't there in your lives?" Hikari didn't ask. Instead, she swallowed and looked away at the swings before saying meekly, "Oh..._that._Well now." At least she was right about one thing: he wasn't going to let the chance to talk to her slip away just like that. "Well," she went on slowly, "you said – you said, earlier, that she's doing fine. Does that, umm, does that mean she doesn't need the treatment anymore? Does that mean she's...all right now?" she finished lamely.

"We went to France because she needed the treatment – she's still there, so, to answer your question, no. She's still anaemic."

Hikari nodded quickly. "Right. Of course."

"But she's doing all right," Takeru said. After a short pause, he said, "Anything else?"

It was as if he could read her mind, and that he was saying, _"__Come __on.__Here__'__s __your __chance __to __really __find __out.__" _Hikari took her time as she tried to form a question that wouldn't sound so desperate – "Are you still engaged to her?" was too straightforward, really, and, "Are you still together?" sounded too general. They could still be "together" as friends – and while it was possible that they weren't "together" as fiancés, they could still be "together" as a couple—or perhaps as really close friends, the type that bordered to the sibling type of love, like the ones she often saw in Korean dramas where the female character called the male character 'oppa' – which really meant, 'brother', right? But those kinds of dramas never end well...the 'brother' and 'sister' often fell in love in the end, and—

"Hikari."

His voice managed to pull her out of her thoughts. Once again, Hikari felt as if Takeru _knew_what was going on in her head, and had merely interrupted to bring her back to the original question.

"Yes?" she answered, a little too quickly.

The way he was looking at her this time around confirmed her previous guesses – this guy really was trying to scan her head, like he could do an X-ray to find out what she was thinking.

"Anything else?" Takeru repeated, a little slowly this time, with a whole new tone to it. What he really meant was perhaps, _"__Just __ask __me __the __damn __question, __don__'__t __you __wanna __find __out __the __truth?__"_

Hikari took a deep breath. "Will she be all right without you?"

Takeru actually looked amused at this, and Hikari congratulated herself on having worded the question so delicately. "She'll be fine," he said, "she has her parents. And we're not together anymore."

Well then, wasn't _that _the answer she'd been looking for all these years?

Hikari tried to look and sound casual as she took in the news. She bit her lips, nodding, and simply said, "Oh."

He nodded at this. "M-hm."

Cue the awkward pause, please.

Hikari was doing her best to avoid his eyes as she tried to sort out the wreckage in her head that consisted of 'Did he just say _not __together __anymore?__'__,_'Does this mean he's really broken off the engagement?', 'Oh God, I bet he's waiting to see how I'd react to this,' and 'Is he looking at me? Oh God, oh God, _Oh __God_.'

Takeru opened his mouth and was about to say something when his eyes darted at something behind her. Hikari turned around just in time to see Willis' smile stiffen. He and his hunting partner were slowly marching towards the kindergarten, their legs still tied together.

"So this _must _be the last checkpoint, right?" Hokama Susumu said excitedly as he saw Hikari. "You two wouldn't be here if it wasn't right? Oh, and look! More shoes! We're not the last one here, are we?"

"No, you aren't," Takeru replied. Hikari realised that he was standing right next to her now. Whatever warmth that was present on his face before was gone now; his face was unfathomable once again, and his eyes had a hint of coldness about them as he steadily met Willis' gaze. "Teams one, two and four aren't here yet."

Susumu punched the air. "_Yusss!_ C'mon, Willis, let's get inside before the others reach this place!"

"Yeah. Right," said Willis absent-mindedly as he continued to stare at Takeru. Hikari half expected the latter to take her by the hand again and lead her away from Willis and Susumu to continue their conversation, but he didn't.

"In fact, we should all get inside," suggested Takeru calmly.

"What were you guys doing outside, anyway?" Susumu asked, frowning, as he struggled to take off his shoes with his leg still tied to Willis's. "There aren't more riddles to solve, are there? I was just – goddammit, can we just cut this rope off? I can't take off my shoes!"

Willis rolled his eyes and sat down next to Susumu. "Honestly, they're just your normal shoe laces, what could be so difficult?"

Their bickering must have reached the kitchen because a moment later, Mrs. Kim was at the door, congratulating the new pair of scavenger hunters. She then ushered them all inside and while the six of them chatted in the classroom, the kindergarten teacher once more excused herself to the kitchen to fetch more cups and biscuits.

With Willis in the classroom, their little trio group was once more reunited. Miyako had a lot to tell them about Yamato – or Matt, as she sometimes called him – and Hikari and Willis would simply roll their eyes or laugh and mock her for being such a fan girl. The singer himself was sitting close to them, but was engaged in a conversation with his little brother. Hikari found herself sneaking glances at the two Ishida brothers now and again, wondering what they were talking about. Pretty soon, Takeru withdrew from any sort of conversation altogether, leaving Yamato free to join the others in their little chat. Hikari wondered why Takeru hadn't just ignored Willis's arrival – he was pretty determined not to let Yamato and Miyako's arrival stop their conversation just now, but it was different when Willis and Susumu came. It was as if seeing Willis had somehow made Takeru back off and shut down.

"So do you play any instruments, Miyako?" Yamato was asking when Hikari decided to return to reality.

"Nah, I'm too much of a computer geek to play any instruments."

"Psh, you said that like it's a bad thing. I know a computer whiz and he's _awesome,_to say the least."

Hikari wondered if this was a flirting session, but soon, she could see that Miyako didn't see Yamato – or Matt – in a romantic way. Instead, Miyako seemed to view him as her idol, someone she clearly respected and admired, because the questions never travel down the 'Are you single?' road and she didn't give Yamato the Sparkly Flirty Inoue Eyes (that's what Willis had named Miyako's flirty looks, anyway).

"What did you two talk about out there just now?" Willis's voice was low and his eyes reflected his concern. "Was he trying to explain himself to you?" Willis pressed on. Hikari shrugged and sighed, but decided not to answer this question. Willis seemed dissatisfied with her silence. In a lower voice, he asked, "What did he say? Are you all right?"

Hikari had to smile at this. "I'm fine, Willis, really."

"Well, what did he say to you?" he insisted.

Although she felt reluctant to share the details of her conversation with Takeru, Hikari felt that Willis deserved to know. After all, he was the one who had lent her his ears when she told him about Takeru all these years. In an equally low voice, Hikari said, "His grandmother died three years ago – he was in France for only two years."

Willis didn't say anything, and that was when Hikari realised that he was glaring at Takeru, who was quite separated from the rest of them really – he was by the window, staring out of it and occasionally sipping at his cup of tea and munching on a biscuit. His face betrayed none of what he might be feeling at the moment, and he looked as if nothing had happened earlier. He was, once again, that cold schoolboy Hikari once knew.

"He's been looking for me since," Hikari finished, looking away from Takeru's graceful figure by the window. Willis scoffed at this, shaking his head.

"What about his fiancé? Not dead, I hope."

"No, no. She's still in France."

"Hmm," said Willis, and he seemed satisfied at the moment. "They're still engaged, then?"

Hikari didn't know why she didn't reply. Instead, she merely shrugged.

"Well...you _are _okay, aren't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm _fine_Willis, jeez."

"What? I had to be sure," he said, now offering her one of his goofy smiles. He bumped their shoulders together and Hikari's smile turned into a grin.

"What're you two whispering about over there?" came Miyako's accusing voice.

"Hikari was in a dilemma," Willis said (and Hikari saw Takeru's eyes move from staring out the window to staring at _her_). "She didn't know what to wear for tonight and I said she should just wear what she always wears, so that's settled now."

Hikari had been so occupied with everything Takeru-related on that day that she'd quite forgotten that evening's event.

"Why, what's with tonight?" Yamato asked. (In his corner, Takeru had started to pay attention to the conversation).

"The annual dinner, of course," said Miyako. "We do it each year after the Sports Day, just for the heck of it."

"Oh, oh yeah, I've heard my dad talking about it," said Yamato. "It's at Mr. Yamada's house, right?"

"Yeah, his place is _huge,__" _said Susumu, nodding enthusiastically. "The food's always delicious, too!"

"So you guys do this every year?"

"Yep – we're a tight community~"

"Well, we're looking forward to this dinner then," said Yamato, and Hikari saw him wink at Takeru a moment later when Miyako was talking about the dinner party.

Takeru merely rolled his eyes at his brother as a reply.

-X-

Twenty-two-year-old Izumi Koushiro pushed on the table so the swivel chair he was on could slide backwards across the room. He stood up and stretched before checking his watch – 6:20 PM, it said, so he still had time to get ready and drive to Kurokuro. This year, he had received two invitations to attend the small village's annual dinner party: one from his friend Taichi, and another from the chief of the village, Mr. Yamada. In previous years, Koushiro would feel awkward attending a dinner party where he knew pretty much no one but the Yagamis, but after three years, he had gotten used to it and had even befriend the people of Kurokuro.

He had known Taichi for a long time and they had remained friends even after Taichi moved to Odaiba, and later to Heiwa. They kept in contact through e-mails mostly, and then five years ago, Taichi lost his mother and his whole family had decided to move to Kurokuro which, coincidentally, was just an hour away from where Koushiro's university was. Five years ago was a really tough time for Taichi's family – not only did they lose Mrs. Yagami, but Taichi's sister, Hikari, had been quite depressed over something. Koushiro later found out that it had something to do with a guy, and that this guy had left Hikari-chan to go live in France. Taichi had also mentioned something about the guy being engaged to another (a family arrangement, Taichi had said), but it was such a sensitive subject back then, so Taichi didn't really fully explain everything.

Koushiro's phone rang just as he was about to enter the bathroom. He expected it to be Taichi, but it wasn't. The screen was displaying _Ishida__Yamato._

"Hello, Koushiro speaking."

"_Hey, it's me. Taichi said you're coming tonight... Are you?"_

"Yeah. I suppose your whole family's going to be quite the celebrity tonight, eh?"

"_Yeah, Mr. Yamada's still quite excited about having a new family in the village, so. Yeah."_

"How was the scavenger hunt?"

"_It was awesome. My team got second place this year – not bad, eh?"_

"Yeah," said Koushiro, "what about Taichi's team?"

"_Meh, they got first place, thanks to Takeru."_

Koushiro frowned. "I thought your brother would be in _your_team."

"_He was, but then Taichi had to twist his ankle—"_

Koushiro grinned. "I've heard."

"—_So Takeru paired up with Hikari for the hunt."_

"How 'bout that," Koushiro said, impressed. He had doubted both Taichi and Yamato's match-making abilities, but they seemed to be doing the job pretty well.

He and Yamato met in an extremely weird way (in his opinion, anyway). Four years ago, the company that Yamato's band was under had decided to make an online competition for university students: whoever designed the best art cover for _The __Teenage __Wolves__' _first album would get the chance to meet up with the band, and a live performance would be held at the winner's university. The internet is a powerful place, really, because even before _The __Teenage __Wolves _debuted, there had been numerous online forums and fan sites discussing the band.

Koushiro, of course, was clueless as to what _The __Teenage __Wolves _was (was it a group protecting wolves under PETA or something?), but only found out about them when almost 90% of the female members of the computer club (of which he was President) began to miss club activities. When questioned, one of them had explained about the designing contest, and that was when Koushiro found out that _The __Teenage __Wolves _was a rock band and not an affiliate of PETA.

The female members of Koushiro's computer club turned out to be the best of the best when it came to designing album covers, because five months later, Maeda Yoko emerged as the victor of the online competition – and the rest of the female population of Koushiro's university went crazy with excitement. Maeda Yoko herself was shaking when she finally got to meet the band, and since she was a member of the computer club (and since the computer club was pretty much her second home), the meeting was held at the computer room.

That was when Koushiro met Ishida Yamato. Little did he know that his childhood friend, Taichi, and this cool-looking future rock star, Yamato, were connected in a way.

Koushiro thought that Yamato – or Matt – was one of those snobby singers who only came over to the university because his manager had told him to do so, but he was wrong. Yamato and his band knew that they still had a long way to go, so they pretty much respected their fans the way a person would respect their great-grandfathers. "Because without the fans," Yamato would often say afterwards, "the band is nothing."

Maeda Yoko had introduced _The __Teenage __Wolves _to the rest of the female members of the club, and since Koushiro had been sitting there the whole time with an amused look on his face as this little meet-and-greet occurred, Maeda had introduced him to Yamato as well.

"And this is our computer genius president, Izumi Koushiro. Koushiro-san, these are the super awesome members of _The_ _Teenage __Wolves._"

"Hey, nice to meet you. Sorry to barge into your computer room like this," Yamato had said apologetically as the crowd of fan girls outside the room screamed, "WE LOVE YOU!" at the top of their lungs.

"Not at all," Koushiro had replied, still feeling a little amused. "So you're the rock band I've heard so much about, huh?"

That morning went on all right, Koushiro had often thought, and this Yamato fellow was definitely a nice guy, despite the cool facade he was putting on. They had kept in contact afterwards solely for the purpose of the online competition, but then somehow it turned into friendship. A year later, Koushiro learnt that Yamato's parents were remarrying and that he had been invited. Not wanting to be rude, Koushiro attended the modest wedding.

That was when he found out that Yamato had a younger brother who was in France, and he had wondered _why_ this little brother was in France and not in Japan, attending the wedding, and...

That was when the creepy stuff began to happen.

"He's in France because he was forced into an engagement with someone our grandmother liked," Yamato had explained. Koushiro had then politely asked to whom was your little brother engaged to? And he had replied with, "Some French girl."

Then Yamato went on to tell a vaguely familiar story to Koushiro, except that the version that Yamato had told him was from a different point of view. Yamato told him how his little brother, one Takaishi Takeru ("Well, Ishida Takeru now, I suppose," Yamato had said, grinning), had grown quite depressed with the whole engagement thing.

"Why's he depressed? I mean, French girls are pretty, no? He should be happy he's engaged to one."

Yamato had teased Koushiro then – something about not knowing that a computer geek could have fine tastes in girls – before explaining that while French girls _were_pretty, Takeru had already fallen in love with someone else. Needless to say, Takeru was seriously pissed off when he was suddenly shipped off to France against his will. The girl that Takeru was in love with had taken the news badly and had completely cut her ties with Takeru.

"What's the name of this girl, may I ask?" Koushiro had asked as he ate the wedding cake next to Yamato.

"Why?"

He had simply shrugged. "Just curious."

Yamato had given him a suspicious look then, but had answered him anyway: "Her name's Yagami Hikari."

And that was when Koushiro had almost chocked on the cake he was eating. He had coughed several times before gasping out, "That's Taichi's sister!"

Yamato had to slap Koushiro's back for quite some time before his coughing subsided. "You know Taichi?"

"Well – do _you _know him?"

"No, not in person, but Takeru's mentioned him to me."

"Well Iknow him all right – he's been my friend since the first grade."

"So you know Hikari as well, right?"

The conversation then became fast and exciting – Yamato had grown really enthusiastic about bringing Takeru and Hikari together that he had pretty much demanded Koushiro to bring Taichi along the next time they meet up.

The meeting did come, but it didn't go as Yamato had planned. Taichi had been pretty upset about the whole thing, blaming Takeru for turning his sister into such a forlorn girl. Yamato had defended his brother then, telling Taichi that Takeru hadn't meant to hurt Hikari and that there was nothing Takeru could to stop the engagement from happening. The two had argued some more, and Koushiro often had to come between them when he thought that they were about to punch one another in the face. How they had managed to settle down to a civilised conversation afterwards was quite beyond Koushiro.

"Don't you think you're being a little unfair? Takeru _couldn__'__t __do __anything, _and it wasn't like he'd tricked your sister or anything – he really genuinely loves her. And trust me, Takeru doesn't simply love someone that easily."

"Is that supposed to make my sister feel better?" Taichi had scoffed, and the conversation had ended pretty badly. But before he went home, Yamato had asked Taichi to please, ponder on something: had Hikari fallen in love again – as in, _really __fallen __in __love __with __someone__else__ – _after Takeru left her?

"Look, she's coping now and she's happy, so you leave her alone," Taichi had said before marching away.

But a week later, Koushiro had received a text message from Taichi, asking whether 'Mr. Rock Star' was free that weekend to discuss about their siblings. Yamato had quickly replied the positive when Koushiro asked – and that was the beginning of their many meetings. By the end of that year, Ishida Takeru came back to Japan, and Koushiro finally got to meet the kid. He was blond like Yamato and had blue eyes like Yamato, but was less friendly. Koushiro, Yamato and Taichi had agreed to not tell anyone about their meetings and discussions, so Takeru had not suspected anything when he met Koushiro. The kid didn't even know that his own brother had been meeting up with his ex's older brother.

And then _somehow,_Yamato managed to persuade his father to move to Kurokuro. A year after Yamato made the suggestion to move to the little village, the Ishidas really _did _move in. Koushiro heard that Mr. Ishida had been promoted to a higher position and had had to move to the city near Kurokuro.

Everything fell in place just nicely.

Yamato and Taichi's job now was to stand back and see how their younger siblings acted around one another, so Koushiro was pretty impressed that they had managed to get Takeru and Hikari pair up with each other for the scavenger hunt that year.

"Did you and Taichi plan all this?" Koushiro asked, taking out the clothes he had planned on wearing to the dinner party from the closet and transferring them to his bed.

"_Nope__ – __totally __didn__'__t __plan __this,__" _said Yamato. "_It __just __happened. __At __first __I __thought __Taichi __was __faking __the __sprained __ankle __and __all, __but __he __really __did __trip __by __accident __and __the __whole __thing__'__s __just __a __coincidence. __It __was __Mr. __Yamada __who __dragged __Takeru __to __pair __up __with __Hikari. __Gotta __give __the __credit __to __him.__"_

"Well, how did those two react?"

"_They were so awkward with one another at first – it hurt so much just to look at them like that. But then they talked a bit and, I dunno, Takeru's being really secretive right now. I'm gonna go and bug him a little afterwards."_

"Right – good luck with that. So, see you guys at eight?"

Koushiro sometimes wondered how he had been dragged into this whole 'Reunite Ishida Takeru with Yagami Hikari' thing, and why he was still there listening to Taichi and Yamato's plans – but there you go. That's life for you.

"_Eight o' clock it is. Bye."_

"Bye."

-X-

Takeru was lying flat on his back, his long legs dangling off the bed as he stared unblinkingly at the ceiling above. He really didn't feel like going to the dinner party, really, because he wasn't sure if he could face Hikari again. He thought he'd made a good job at explaining what had happened in France and after France – but he hadn't really found out what she thought about it. Was she still upset? Was she relieved? Displeased? Pissed off? Indifferent? (No, no – she _couldn__'__t _be indifferent...surely not.) Takeru had been pondering on nothing but this for an hour and a half now, and he still couldn't fathom what Hikari thought of him now.

He sighed as he concluded that the reason behind his reluctance to meet up with her was the fear of being rejected. What if, after all these years, he had been the one who couldn't let go of her? What if she had slowly – slowly but surely – moved on? Takeru remembered how easily Willis could make her smile and laugh when she was in distress – and then he realised, with a pang, that he had never been the type to make anyone smile or laugh.

He was quiet, reserved, unsmiling – cold.

Takeru groaned as he rolled over to lie on his stomach, burying his face into the pillow beneath him. He went on lying on the bed, unmoving, for another ten minutes before he realised that his mother had been calling him from downstairs. Her knock sounded on his door just when he was sitting up, and the door swung open soon after.

"All right there, Takeru-kun?"

Takeru sighed, spreading his arms a little before letting them fall on his lap – a way of saying, "Well, what d'you _think_?"

"Yamato said you talked to Hikari earlier at the kindergarten. How did it go?"

He shrugged. "She was willing to listen. We talked a bit. That was it."

"Did she...say anything?"

Takeru shook his head. "That's the problem. She didn't say anything. I told her Catherine's not my fiancé anymore and she just – she didn't say anything. I don't know what's going on in her head."

His mother entered the room and sat down next to him. "Well, if you see her tonight, you might get another chance to talk to her," she said gently.

"I don't know if I wanna go or not."

"Why?"

Takeru felt his cheeks going red as he said, "Well – what if...what if she's, you know, moved on?"

He felt like a high school _girl_, sitting there talking about his long-time crush with his mother – but this wouldn't be the first time he and his mother talked about Yagami Hikari. Hikari might not know it, but she had been discussed about frequently by Takeru's family members for the past five years (however creepy _that _might sound like). She might not know it, but she was pretty much the reason Takeru's mother had remarried his father. In their many attempts to rescue Takeru from the engagement, Natsuko and Hiroaki had frequently teamed up while looking for possible ways to drag Takeru away from his grandmother's clutch and back to Japan – and they had consequently fallen in love once again. Takeru was in the midst of hurling an antique lamp at his grandmother one evening (_don__'__t__ask_ – they argued a lot about the engagement back then and their arguments often led to broken china and furniture) when Yamato had called, telling him, "Keru-kun, guess what, guess what, _guess __what_? Dad thinks he's gonna propose to mum tomorrow!" Upon hearing Takeru's heavy breaths and their grandmother shrieking curse words at the other end of the line, Yamato had asked, "Did she just call you the devil's spawn? My French is rusty," and upon receiving no reply, had wisely decided, "You know what, I'll just call you back."

(And yes, Takeru did hurl the lamp at his grandmother afterwards, right after he hung up the phone.)

Of course, it had taken their parents more than two years to bond again, and their father did _not_propose to their mother after that phone call. Takeru wasn't worried though, because Yamato's daily e-mail reports often include, "They're almost there, really, they need just one more push" and "I swear to God, these two are acting like high school lovers every day, I might just throw up in front of them one day."

Nearing the end of Takeru's second year in France, his parents and Yamato had finally managed to come up with something that might just rescue Takeru: the plan was to lie to their grandmother, telling her that a very old relative of dad's was dying and that Takeru, as family, had to come and visit before the old man died. The plan was to 'disappear mysteriously' afterwards with Takeru, and to never keep in touch with any of their mother's relatives in France.

Well – that was the _plan._Things didn't go quite the way they had wanted.

Their grandmother had grown really suspicious of this news – "I 'ave never heard of this...this Ishida Tomoki person, and your mother has never mentioned him to me before" – and had decided to fly back to Japan herself to see if such terminally ill Ishida relative really _did _exist. Natsuko had begged her sister Yukiko to come along, just so she wouldn't have to face her mother's wrath alone when the old lady finally discovered that it was all a lie after all.

And then their plane had crashed on the way to Japan.

Suddenly everything was sombre, suddenly everything was _possible._Takeru recalled being quite confused when the news of his grandmother and his aunt's death reached him: was he supposed to celebrate being a free man once more, or was he supposed to mourn the death of his aunt? Was flying back to Japan at once the wise thing to do?

He was lucky his mother had stepped up and made the decisions for him – yes, he was to come home immediately, and yes, he should be celebrating being his own person once more, but that did not mean he shouldn't mourn the loss of Aunt Yukiko.

His mother really tried her best to fly Takeru back home, but Catherine's parents would have none of it. This match between Takeru and Catherine had been planned since their infancy, they had reminded Natsuko, so surely it wouldn't be dismissed just like that? In the end, Takeru had to miss his parents' wedding because he had to stay in France, because the Leroys had insisted him to, and he had to wait until his parents came and explain everything and apologise to the Leroys.

The day his plane landed on Japanese soil was the day he could finally breathe properly.

They had slowly rebuilt their lives from then on. Natsuko had decided to take in Hiroki-kun, and their family expanded a little. Yagami Hikari continued to be discussed openly among them for quite some time, but then Takeru began to avoid the subject and his parents and brother sort of picked up the hint and had ceased to talk about the girl.

Until she reappeared in their lives in Kurokuro, of course.

Natsuko placed an arm around Takeru's shoulder. "If you don't go, you may never get the chance to know for sure. I'm sure she meant to give you a reply – she was just...preoccupied. You know it's a lot for her to process what you've just told her, right? She'll need time. Let's see if she's ready to say anything tonight, yeah?"

Takeru merely looked at his mother for a while before saying, "No. I don't think I'm going."

"Nonsense, you _are_coming to the dinner party. We've talked about this."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Like, _absolutely _have to?"

"_Yes!__" _said his mother, laughing a little. "Come on, it'll be all right, I'm sure."

Takeru groaned loudly.

"And you've spent so much time figuring out what to wear," she said, "it'd be a shame if you don't go."

Takeru gave a look that said, "Really, mum? Do I look like a person who cares much about clothes?"

"Well, okay, maybe you don't care much about clothes – but I heard the food is going to be delicious. C'mon, if you miss the dinner, you'd be hungry because I'm not cooking anything for dinner tonight."

"Oh, _fine _then_,_I'll go."

-X-

WRITE ABOT THE DINNER PARTY NOW. **NAO,**YOU LAZY ASS!

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry, that last line was for me. Yeah, I scold myself like that sometimes. :D

**This ****is ****a ****rant.**I've always wondered how Miyako, in Digimon 02, did not drool all over Yamato, because let's face it, she was pretty much into good-looking boys (Ken, and then Michael). Well, at least that's how she's portrayed in the English dubbed version. I haven't managed to watch all episodes the Japanese version and where I am currently, the internet connection is so slow that downloading torrent files is pure torture. Anyway, I've decided to not make her drool all over Yamato in this, but they're more like friends, really (becauseI'mintroducingKensoonKEKEKEKE). **End ****of ****rant.**

Did you guys enjoy the ~plot~ in this one? XD I'm throwing in Ken, Mimi and Jyou after this.

By the way, what are dinner parties usually like? What do you wear?


End file.
